Precipice of Nintoku
by Sukki18
Summary: A double agent trying desperately to smother his conscious. A girl who has never been taught the meaning of morals. An ANBU Captain struggling to keep the peace between his family and village. No one is what they appear and everyone has agendas of their own… [Full summary inside] ON HOLD, UNDER REWRITE!
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Surprise surprise…

 **FULL SUMMARY**

 **A double agent trying desperately to smother his conscious.**

 _When Uchiha Shisui offered to use the Kotoamatsukami on his family, he was fully aware of the consequences. Now years later he still feels the weight of his guilt slowly crushing him; but he's almost mastered the art of ignoring it. Almost…_

 **A girl who has never been taught the meaning of morals.**

 _In Nozomi's world, it's always been 'strike first before your opponent has the chance to defend itself'. It's all she's ever known. But now the world is changing and she finds herself questioning if there really is a right and wrong, and where she will stands in the ongoing battle of morals._

 **An ANBU Captain struggling to keep the peace between his family and village.**

 _Uchiha Itachi has been called many things in his life. Genius, prodigy, powerful, rational, wise beyond his years, silent, and even creepy… But perhaps the one word to describe him most is the one no one ever uses: pacifist. And he will do anything to ensure the protection of what he holds dear._

 **No one is what they appear and everyone has agendas of their own.**

 _In a world where no one can trust anyone, three different lives find themselves converging on each other. The question remains is, when the dust finally settles, who will still be standing?_

So I was rewatching the episode about the Uchiha Coup D'état (or was it the Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution 'The Two Uchiha' cut scene...? I think it was) and it came to my attention that when Shisui mentioned he was going to use Kotoamatsukami on his clan, the elders made it sound like he would become a nuke-nin (which, given the legality of it all, it's kinda obvious)... anyway, my mind, as usual, starts spitting out ideas from that one little quote!

So yeah, I'm totally screwing over the canon. And not in a good way.

 **IMPORTANT!** **Time is very nebulous in the story.** **It follows** **multiple characters and 2 different plot lines** **so make sure you pay attention to the time and date given before the POV starts.**

 **vvv**

 _Red as Fate_

 _Silver of the Half Moon_

 _Young Eyes too much like the Old_

 **vvv Konohagakure; Hi no Kuni vvv**

 **vvv November 29; 10:32 pm vvv**

 **vvv Omnipresent vvv**

It was quiet; the air was still, silent… dead. As if the very essence of it had been sucked away by some unknown entity. The world seemed to know that great change had come, and it was holding its breath to see which way the balance tipped.

Out of this unnatural stillness came a man, a teen really, who appeared suddenly in a deserted street with naught but the barest of flickers. He stood there for a moment, his head hanging low so that his unruly black hair covered his eyes. His fists were clinched tightly at his sides, fingernails biting into the soft flesh of his palms. On his right hand, a trickle of blood ran down his fingers and consolidating into a small drop of blood.

It fell.

The teen took a deep breath and looked up at the last quarter moon of Autumn hinging high in the sky. Slowly his blood red eyes featuring a strange pattern faded into black. Instinctively his inflamed left eye closed, it was too painful at the moment to keep it open. He could do this. There was no going back, he had the courage to go forth.

That's what he told himself, at least.

A choking sob escaped the boy's throat and he hastily wiped away fresh tears and smearing the smallest amount of blood across his cheek in the process. Who was he kidding? He had just betrayed his entire village and clan all for the sake of peace. If ever there was a time that his nindo was tested, it was now. How _could_ he walk out of his home like nothing had happened? He didn't have the strength to play the villain, he feared that he would lose himself if he tried. But he _had_ to leave; the authorities would catch him if he stayed here and he would die as a traitor, his deed wasted. No, he needed to abandon the village and watch over it from the shadows just like he always said.

The teen turned around and lifted his chin, his black eyes settling on the four proud faces overlooking his precious village. Looking upon the four Hokages, the teen felt a strange indescribable strength chase away his doubts. He felt more confident than before he even betrayed his village and clan. The boy raised his right fist, thin trails of blood trickling sluggishly over his wrist. "It's up to you now, Itachi. Don't waste my sacrifice." The boy whispered to the wind.

And with that, Uchiha Shisui shunshined away. Not even the leaves underneath his feet shifted with his departure. The only sign that he had even been there was a single drop of blood splattered on a still green leaf.

 **vvv Yūgakure; Yu no Kuni vvv**

 **vvv November 29; 10:32 pm vvv**

 **vvv Omnipresent vvv**

At the same time, in a far off land, a young girl curled up against an onsen's outer wall, trying to seep in as much warmth as she could. The ragged kimono she wore, once magnificent but now dirtied and faded, did little to keep the girl's internal warmth.

The girl hadn't always lived in the streets, begging for scraps and small coin; she once had a family, a doting father and a loving mother and a bold older brother who was always getting into trouble. Then tragedy struck when a freak fire, something fairly common in the village, had started in her old neighborhood and didn't end until it consumed over fifty lives and a third of the street. The girl had only survived because she had been playing with a friend at the time.

The young girl had tried to find somewhere among her friends, but all their parents coldly turned her out again. The village had fallen on hard times, and an extra mouth to feed wasn't what anyone needed; so she didn't blame them. Though, as her bony shoulders shivered violently as a harsh wind wept through the thin fabric of her kimono, she found it hard to forgive them.

It had been three weeks since the fire, three long weeks filled with agony and grief. The fellow street rats, her new 'family' as they appointed themselves, informed her that if she lived past the first month then she was a true street rat and not another poor soul to weak to survive. _But until then_ , they told her, _stay away and don't attach yourself to us, lest we feel the loss of your quick passing_. Some family.

The girl inhaled deeply and looked up at the small quarter moon riding the crest of the night sky. She wanted to cry, _oh_ how she wanted to cry, but her tears had been spent already during that first horrible week she was alone. She wanted her parents, her brother, her friends... _warmth_. She was tired of stewing in her own filthy smell, of the cold and the scraps and the awful looks she got from tourists. The girl couldn't stand it, but she refused to let any of it run her over.

No, she would continue to live as hard and as best as she could, even though she would no doubt hate every second of her life. She was well aware of the rough road ahead of her, regardless of how short or long it was. She knew every waking second would from now until her inevitable death would be filled with nothing but misfortunes and unlucky situations.

But she refused, with ever fiber in her small being, to let her hardships rule over her. If the death of her family taught her one thing, it was that all life was fleeting. Individual lives were but small specks in the infinite road, and thus why they were to be considered the most precious. _That_ was why she refused to bow her head and allow things to just wash over her like the other street rats; she refused to believe that her life was less precious than anyone else's just because of her unfortunate circumstance.

Something caught her eye and the little girl turned slowly to spy a long bit of bright red string caught on the wooden fence of the onsen. The girl reached up and tugged if off the splinter on which it had been caught, and held it between her thumb and forefinger. The string was more of a thick cord, like something a priestess would wear about her neck, rather than a thread snagged from an embroidered kimono. It was the type of treasure many street rats looked for; something that was pretty and sturdy, found in the dusty streets. The girl felt an odd attachment to the red cord, as if it were the tie she had to her past before the fire.

Quickly she reached up and braided the cord into the under layer of her matted, filthy silver hair, where no one would see it and want it for themselves. The cord was hers, and hers alone. As red as the fire that burn her past and as red as the string of fate which would lead her to her future, it was _hers._

 **vvv Amegakure; Ame no Kuni vvv**

 **vvv February 3; 11:58 am vvv**

 **vvv Shisui vvv**

 _~One Year Later~_

Shisui hated it all. He _hated_ the Akatsuki, he _hated_ Kisame, he _hated_ the pride the rest of them took in their kill numbers and ill reputations; but he hated _himself_ the most. This… _monster_ wasn't him. Shisui could hardly recognize himself; he often found himself pausing throughout the day feeling sickened at his own change in personality.

It was horrible, so much so that Shisui often contemplated ending his life and the mad suffering he put himself through every day, every second of every hour. The only reason why he didn't was due to the loyalty of his village and clan. Shisui often told himself that if he took his own life he would be betraying his village, more so than he already did. He was the only link Konoha had to the Akatsuki, a dangerous organization that had swept him up only weeks after his defection. Shisui was the only source of information to keep his precious village ahead of the game.

No one suspected him. They all treated him like a lost child in their own way; be it patronizing, belittling, or pitying. Shisui didn't blame them for it either; he was only seventeen while Kisame, the second youngest, was almost twenty-five. He understood, but that in no way meant he enjoyed it.

Still, Shisui endured it all without complaint.

Not even when Orochimaru attacked him for his Sharingan.

It had been almost pathetic of an attempt, one that Shisui would have written off as a joke if Orochimaru did not look so surprised that he was easily stopped by a paralysis genjutsu. Shisui couldn't help but wonder if the Akatsuki saw his age as inexperience and ignorance rather than seeing it as a prodigious accomplishment to have come so far for one so young. Orochimaru certainly seemed to be in that school of thought.

Shisui eyed the once great and famed ninja of his village with slight disdain. Shisui was loyal to Konoha above all else, he had gone as far as to use his sharingan against his own clan and joining an organization filled with S-class criminals to spy on them. Someone like Orochimaru, someone who betrayed the village and _harmed_ it's children for personal gain, was what Shisui considered to be worse than scum. Trash like that deserved to die in the most horrific way; but Shisui was not the one who deserved to take the man's life. He was scum just like Orochimaru, a nuke-nin with skewed loyalties. A dirty double agent.

He had planned to let Orochimaru slither off and live to fight another day, but then the snake foolishly threatened the Uchiha clan's children as vengeance on Shisui, specifically Itachi. It had been so quiet, almost as if Orochimaru had only muttered it to himself, but Shisui heard it. He reacted without thinking, a first for him, and his tantō was carving a path towards Orochimaru's neck before Shisui and fully processed the snake's words. Of course Orochimaru knocked the blade away with ease and breaking the genjutsu in the process, which caused the tantō to dissolve into nothing. His mouth curled into a predatory sneer. Arrogantly, the Sannin locked eyes with Shisui, no doubt to sneer and gloat that he could withstand the Uchiha's genjutsu; but instead of meeting the standard three tomoe sharingan Orochimaru found himself looking into a unique sharingan with the pattern of a black four-pointed pinwheel, similar in shape to a shuriken.

Before he could even blink, Orochimaru and Shisui were suddenly transported to another dimension where everything was bathed in an eerie dark gold light. The sharingan in Shisui's eye hung over the both of them, ominously glowing like a bloody sun. As Orochimaru watched the giant sharingan brightened into a blinding white light and shattered apart into seven large beams, six striking around Orochimaru while the final one hit him directly. All grew larger and larger until it was just one giant beam of light. At first Orochimaru did not feel anything other than a tremendous downward force that pushed him to his knees, but then the light began to _burn_ with such intensity that it vaporized Orochimaru in one excruciating instant. He didn't even get the chance to scream.

And then as suddenly as it began, it was all over. He was back in reality, kneeling on the ground at Shisui's feet trying to remember how to breathe. There was the smallest creak of leather to signal that the Uchiha moved and Orochimaru looked up in pure _terror_ as the Shisui raised his tantō for the first time since their 'fight' began, looking as indifferent as when Orochimaru first attacked him.

"I will always protect the Uchiha and the village, regardless of my apparent loyalty to the Akatsuki." The boy snarled, his indifferent facade twisting into a furious and cold expression that could cause nightmares.

His tantō descended with one fell swoop, so quick there was only the barest streak of silver in the air to signify its path. The snake remained still for a moment, his acidic yellow eyes wide in disbelief that he had been defeated by a seventeen year old _boy_ , before his body toppled over and his head bounced down three steps before coming to a halt, his astonished expression forever frozen on his face. Shisui did not hesitate to blast the body and its head with his hottest Katon jutsu. There was no way in hell that Shisui would give one of Orochimaru's henchmen the chance of retrieving of his corpse. With the snake's work in cloning and manipulation of DNA, Shisui wouldn't put it past the bastard to come up with a way to return from the dead.

Shisui couldn't help but feel a vindictive pleasure as he watched the silhouette of the snake's body slowly diminish at the white-hot core of the fire. Shisui did not enjoy taking life, but when it was someone as putrid and vile as Orochimaru, who had harmed the village in more ways then the Kyuubi could ever do, Shisui was satisfied. He knew that Orochimaru was obsessed with power, and to know that the snake died so quickly sent shivers of pleasure up Shisui's spine.

But it did not last. As soon as the wind whisked away the last ashes of Orochimaru, so too did the sick joy disappear and left him cold and empty. Shisui quietly walked away from the second attempt on his eyes and cursed their abilities for they brought nothing but curses on him. How he wished that he could stay in Konoha, still sparring with Itachi and teasing Sasuke about his brother complex. How he wished he could wink at the cute girls without a care and eat his grandparents famous senbei crackers all day then be yelled at by Mikoto-oba for not eating right.

How Shisui wished he could _smile_ again and truly mean it, not just some ghostly replication of it.

 **vvv Yūgakure; Yu no Kuni vvv**

 **vvv October 31; 5:09 pm vvv**

 **vvv Nozomi vvv**

The young girl, a new teenager, had been running the streets with her 'family' for little over a year when her life changed completely for the second time. By then she had gotten her street name, mockingly called 'Koinu' for her ideas of a better future; and the old one had been left behind, but not forgotten. The girl refused to forget any tie to her past when she was happy and innocent of the cruel world. She refused to openly claim that she belonged to that self proclaimed clan of orphans and urchins. To 'Koinu', they were only a stepping stone, one that would keep her from the raging grief and bring her a step closer to her future. Unlike her 'family' she did not see living on the streets as a way of life but as something to abide her until she could rise from it.

A year was a long time in street rat years. 'Koinu' was only thirteen, yet she was one of the elders to the tribe of thieves and pick pockets. Most didn't last but five months. The village they resided in had many rats, both of the human and animal variety, and both were treated with the same disgust as the other. They were both killed with a vengeance, but only if they were caught. As such, the urchins of the streets evolved like their four legged brethren and learned to hide themselves in the shadows and to steal from the multitude of tourists that descended upon the village like flies on a carcass. Only the most determined and hardened veterans lasted on the streets.

 _Don't get attached, people come and go. Don't go looking for a family, it'll only lead to disappointment. Don't want what you can't have, it will lead to trouble._ That was the street rat creed. The golden rules to live by. 'Koinu' lived by those three rules strictly, she was determined to live past her street days and if that meant following the street rules to survive, she would.

The other urchins and thieves laughed at her resolution to get out of the slums. They said she was an optimistic pup, a girl who had yet to see the true horrors of the world. What was a little fire and a dead family compared to war and famine and rape? People suffered and died everyday and it was better to just forget it all and live how you can. But 'Koinu' refused to bow her head and submit to their ideals. She would rather leave them all behind and fight for her right in the world instead of committing small crimes until she finally died.

So she did.

It hadn't been a conscious decision, 'Koinu' hadn't even considered the possibility until it was there in front of her, waiting for an answer in the form of two men wearing black cloaks adorned with blood red clouds; red as fate and red as her little red cord still hidden in her hair. She admitted that she had hesitated for only a moment, more out of wariness than reluctance, but she grasped the chance with both hands regardless and didn't let go.

 **vvv Shisui vvv**

Shisui had no clue as to why he offered to take the pest along. It had honestly slipped from his mouth before he realized, and before he could retract the offer she accepted. Mentally Shisui cursed himself the fool, he had only begun to earn the respect of his fellow Akatsuki members, bringing home a child with no talent to aid the organization would set back his work. Until he was accepted as a full trusted member of the Akatsuki, Shisui could not accomplish what he had set out to do when he first joined the organization. A child tagging along would only hinder his progress.

Shisui had caught her trying to steal from their Target, and had been good enough that the small time nuke-nin hadn't noticed until Shisui had the girl by her wrist and the man's full wallet within his grasp and out of hers. The girl had tried to struggle, but she, a petty civilian pickpocket, didn't stand a chance against Shisui. Kisame took care of the squawking man while Shisui studied the girl.

She was different from the other street rats, stubborn; she didn't scurry out of his path as quick as she could but glared whole-heartedly at him. Something that Shisui saw he could use. It would be helpful to have an ally when his plans began to show themselves. One that was completely loyal to him and him alone.

Kisame-san was amused, at least. Though he might have been more amused in anticipation of what the Leader would say rather than the fact that Shisui had even offered. In the year they had been partners, Shisui had gone from hating the Kiri nuke-nin to begrudgingly respecting him. Regardless of the organization's amoral outlook– Shisui had been _congratulated_ for killing Orochimaru by the snake's own partner– Shisui learned that Kisame was possibly the best of them all. The shark hybrid was as loyal as Shisui, possibly even more so, however his heart was in the wrong place. Kisame was loyal to the Akatsuki alone.

Even so, for someone so loyal to a vile organization as the Akatsuki, Kisame had a very surprising soft spot for children. One that might have rivaled Shisui's before he locked away what was left of his naive personality. It had been a common sight in Konoha to see the famous Shunshin no Shisui having orphans and pint sized beggars following him around and learning whatever they could to get off the streets; though the memory of it was probably cursed now by those who used to smile at the sight. However, it was a strange sight to see the feared Kirigakure no Kaijin giving a thirteen year old girl a closed mouth grin, not one filled with malice like most of his smiles, and asking what her name was.

She shrugged and said her name didn't matter anymore.

Kisame's lips pulled back a little, enough that the sharp odd angles of his teeth began to show, but not enough that the girl could see they were pointed and dangerous. If anything, it made Kisame's teeth look terribly crooked, "Now now, little one, everyone's name is important." Kisame spoke in that condescending tone he once had used on Shisui before he began respecting the Uchiha's skills.

The girl's mint green eyes, so sharp and colorful against her bedraggled appearance, narrowed. "Koinu." She finally bit out, as if it were a curse.

Even Shisui had to snort a little at that. Her parents had been sappy enough to called her ' _puppy_ '? It was no wonder that the girl thought her name wasn't important. Granted, it wasn't as degrading as being named 'death water' or 'demon shark', but it was just as ridiculous.

Kisame's blue face contorted in suppressed mirth, "Hmmm… how about I just call you the nusume-osanai?" The thief child. Again it was only by the stoic facade that Shisui had adopted since joining the Akatsuki that he didn't revert to his old self and burst out laughing. Poor child. He honestly felt sorry for her for having caught Kisame's attention.

If ever a street urchin could look indignant, it was that girl.

"Nozomi."

"Hm?" Kisame raised an eyebrow at the girl who had spoken, obviously amused.

She glared at him, so defiant against someone who could squash her like a bug. It took a special kind of bravery to glare at a six foot walking shark with a mouthful of daggers. Shisui had to admire her for that. "My real name is Nozomi." She repeated through her gritting teeth.

Kisame grinned, finally baring his impressive teeth. Shisui noticed that even the girl, while brave, flinched back at the sight of that infamous predatory grin. "There. That wasn't so hard, was it? But I'm still calling you the nusume-osanai." Ignoring the hiss from the girl, Kisame turned to the man still holding her wrist in a tight grip, "And what do you plan to do with her?"

Shisui noticed the girl stiffening as it occurred to her that she was a teenaged girl in the company of two adult men. No doubt she was already regretting her answer of following them without asking the details. Still, Shisui was raised to be an honorable man and no matter how low he had sunk he would never touch a woman intimately unless she consented; least of all a girl barely in her puberty.

Honestly, Shisui didn't know what to do with her. He really didn't even want her around. It had been a mistake offering her to come along. She was thirteen, her pinnacle of power at that late age would never get higher than a B-class kunoichi, she would never be eligible to be a member of the Akatsuki; and Shisui would rather kill her than have that happen. With her green eyes and exotic silver hair– a common gene in Yūgakure but rare in every other corner of the world– she would be useless as a spy; she stood out too much. He needed an ally, true, but she needed to be useful and not some scrappy little weakling that he had to save every time he turned around.

"She will be useful." Shisui finally declared quietly, staring down impassively at the teenager. The underlying threat remained unsaid, but not unnoticed. If she did not meet his standards in usefulness, he would waste no more time on her. Konoha and his clan came first, not some ragged little girl he had accidentally picked up.

Her minty eyes glinted as she accepted the challenge. Something in that expression reminded Shisui of a boy about Nozomi's age with eyes black and solemn, so different from the girl he held by the wrist now.

 **vvv Konohagakure; Hi no Kuni vvv**

 **vvv November 29; 5:00 pm vvv**

 **vvv Itachi vvv**

A fourteen year old boy watched his father keenly from the shadows, unseen by all. It had been a full year since Shisui's defection and a full year since he cast the Great Genjutsu on the clan. Today was the last day the ANBU would watch the Uchiha clan, to note if there were any signs of the genjutsu failing. It remained strong though and for that Itachi was grateful. He had no wish to murder his clan, to waste Shisui's sacrifice, but if there was any hint that Kotoamatsukami was failing Itachi would not hesitate to annihilate the clan as the elders wanted.

Luckily for him and the unaware Uchiha, it didn't seem to be a problem. The Hokage, as part of the elaborate scheme laid out by Shisui, had began to make subtle amends long before Shisui cast the genjutsu. When the time was right, Shisui had cast Kotoamatsukami on Fugaku and a few of his strong supporters so that they had decided to see what the Hokage was up to rather than go on with their coup d'état. The trap had been set and sprung with ease, and the entire Uchiha clan didn't even know.

As Shisui promised, he would immediately defect from Konoha to keep watch over the village from the outside, in the shadows. Itachi hadn't been the only one who disliked the plan, the Hokage was sad to see Shisui go too, but it was necessary. Shisui would committed a serious crime against Konoha, though a majority would never know. Even if the elders hadn't been so adamant that he left, Itachi knew his cousin would leave anyway. Shisui wouldn't be able to look another Uchiha, not even Itachi, in the eye again without feeling the guilt of having tricked his own clan. Becoming a nuke-nin was Shisui's twisted way of redeeming himself.

That had been the plan, until Danzo attacked Shisui for his eyes and managed to get away with one of them. Luckily the eye Shisui lost was not the one that cast the Kotoamatsukami but rather the Kotoamatsukami: Kobo, an offensive genjutsu, and thus still enabled Shisui to cast the proper genjutsu on Fugaku and clan elders. Shisui had not even informed Itachi of what Danzo had done until after the genjutsu was complete.

Infuriated by his cousin's lack of trust in him and at a so called _honorable_ elder attacking his own subordinates, Itachi in turn went behind Shisui's back and informed the Hokage of the betrayal. That set off a series of rapid fire events that lead to the return of Shisui's right eye, Danzo's private execution at the hands of his own friend Hiruzen, and a perfect excuse as to why Shisui deserted Konoha. And so the blame for killing a powerful elder was pinned on Shisui, turning him from an A-classed shinobi to an S-classed criminal and consequently giving Itachi's cousin more opportunities to work as Konoha's spy.

It was only a month ago that Hiruzen finally got word from Shisui via his raven summons. The only reason why Itachi was even allowed to know was because he had been a major player in the prevention of the Uchiha coup. Itachi still remembered the short thrice-encoded missive very clearly, having actually used his sharingan to memorize it before the Hokage burned the message.

 _Red clouds hiding. Falsely grasping for peace. Six pawns on a shogi board, one broken. The king is not so trusting, only his silver general._

 _~A disloyal friend_

Itachi desperately wanted to see his cousin again, though he knew it was only a hopeless wish and a childish one at that. But without Shisui's care-free attitude to keep him grounded, Itachi was falling back into his antisocial habits. Really, it had gotten so bad that even his precious little brother had began to notice his change. Everyone seemed to write his sudden change in moods off as a reaction to Shisui's 'betrayal' and Itachi didn't refute them. He had no energy to, it was better to let them come to their own conclusions rather than knowing the truth.

Upon finishing his shift, Itachi immediately returned to the Hokage Tower to report to the council. It would taste a lie to say he was sorry that Danzo had been killed, Itachi was quite satisfied with the outcome; but the elders seemed to think differently. Itachi could sympathize, a little. For all his faults and wrong doings, Danzo had been their friend and teammate for many years. And it was clear that they mourned him, the Hokage especially. Itachi had always looked up to the elderly man, he looked up to every Hokage, even the Nidaime; but Itachi could not help but feel a little resentful towards Sarutobi Hiruzen. If he had only been able to control his friend better, none of this would have happened. It had been Danzo that complicated things, it was Danzo who had pushed at the Uchiha until they began pushing back. And now it was _Danzo_ that was mourned as a hero while the true hero became a common name to curse upon. Itachi was a pacifist through and through, but even the mention of Danzo's name almost always sent him into a mindless rage.

Itachi fell into the ANBU's customary kneel the moment he entered the council room and bowed his head in greeting, "Operative Weasel reporting." He said formally, his voice muffled by the porcelain mask he wore. Though the two remaining elders knew Itachi's ANBU identity, it was protocol that an ANBU agent keep his mask on until the Hokage said otherwise. ANBU identities were some of the worst kept secrets in the ninja ranks, but it was still an unspoken rule that when an agent had their mask on they were no longer a friend or comrade but an extension of the Hokage's hand and thus had no other identity.

Hiruzen-sama flicked his fingers and Itachi took off his mask with a small click. Lowering his gaze respectfully, the fourteen year old relayed his report in a concise manner. He wasn't one to exaggerate, not even in the slightest. That had been Shisui's job.

"Are you certain that there was no sign of the genjutsu failing?" Mitokado Homura questioned. Itachi knew that the elder was looking for any slight hint that he could use to obliterate the Uchiha clan. Though he did not know why, Itachi was certain that Homura-sama blamed the Uchiha clan for Danzo's death. Perhaps he was looking for a scapegoat. Only Hiruzen-sama seemed to remember why exactly Danzo had died, his remaining advisers seemed to have bought their own lie and believed that Shisui had actually killed Danzo.

"I am." Itachi said coolly, his voice not betraying his slight frustration with the two elders. They had pestered him to the point that even Itachi was starting to get annoyed with them. But he never showed it, that wasn't who Itachi was. Itachi was collected and calm and never betrayed his thoughts so readily. It was Shisui who voiced his opinions, Shisui who resolved any tension with a wave of his hand, Shisui who was quick to grin and be the first to give up his life for Konoha.

Itachi only hoped he could live up to his cousin's standards.

^o^

 **:long AN ahead, skip it if you want, but it does contain some relevant info:**

*deep gasp* I. AM. DONE! O[]O Seriously this chapter is probably the hardest I ever written. Anyway, Good? Bad? Horribly disgusting and I should just give up all hope of writing ever again? XD Sorry for all the skipping around, this chapter is just to lay out the story's baseline/backstory/whatever the hell you wanna call it. Basically, this whole chapter is just to introduce the three main characters.

 _ **Challenge: can y'all guess what the message Shisui sent to the Hokage means?**_

And yes, I _did_ just kill two very important antagonists. I told ya I was screwing canon over, didn't believe me, eh?!

The jutsu Shisui used to kill (or well, maim really) Orochimaru was _Kotoamatsukami: Kobo._ It's a moveset from the games, and really awesome. If you haven't seen it, go look it up on YouTube. You won't regret it!

I did my research and (according to my logic) the only Akatsuki members at this point in the story are **Pein/Nagato, Konan, Zetsu, Tobi, Kakuzu, Sasori, Kisame** and **Itachi/Shisui** (in order of joining too…), as well as the poor souls who had the misfortune of being Kakuzu's partner, wherever they fit in. If my math and age guessing is correct Deidara doesn't join until he's 15 or 16 (which based on his age difference with Konoha 11 puts him to joining at the beginning of Part 1) and Hidan doesn't join until the time skip before Shipuuden. Also, Tobi doesn't 'join' until Sasori dies at the beginning of Shippuden, so _technically_ he isn't a member either…

 **Ages as of the end of this chapter: Nozomi (13), Itachi (14), Shisui (17), and Kisame (24)**

 **Considering how difficult writing is becoming for me,** I went ahead and made a Tumblr blog for the sole purpose of fanfiction [ _www. tumblr blog/queenofthetrolls_ ] (Take out the spaces behind the periods).

Flame Friendly! Go on and leave a flame if you don't like the story, I do not mind! _(just please, all I ask is you don't leave a guest flame...)_


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

I should be working on an essay... but I'm not! (￣～￣)

This chapter will be a little different because technically I wrote it first (okay, well I had it half done when I decided to scrap the prologue and write it again). There's a time skip so this chapter starts off at the beginning of Naruto (about four years since the prologue)

That in mind, remember that four years can change a person. I'm not accidentally turning my OC into someone completely different from the prologue, everything is intentional. But more on that later.

 **This is only because FLPOLE01 has been hounding me about another update and I feel like I should give him a bone to gnaw on… THIS ONLY HAPPENS ONCE FLPOLE01! *makes 'I'm watching you' signs***

 **vvv**

 _Broken Promises_

 _do not Comfort_

 _Drifting Souls_

 **vvv Konohagakure; Hi no Kuni vvv**

 **vvv January 5; 3:31 pm vvv**

 **vvv Sasuke vvv**

"I'm home!" Sasuke called out as he shut the front door behind him, he frowned when no one answered. He was already disappointed that no one had come to the Academy to see congratulate him for becoming a genin, especially after Itachi-nii had _promised_ he would try to come. Sasuke understood that his brother could be called off on a mission at the drop of the hat, but this was ridiculous! This was the twenty-third time Itachi-nii had broken a promise this _month_ alone.

Sighing the newly made genin dropped his book bag, a hand-me-down that Itachi-nii had used when he was in the academy, by the door and kicked off his sandals. Kaa-chan would probably kill him for not putting them away properly; but at the moment Sasuke was feeling awfully spiteful. He remembered what a big deal his parents made when _Itachi_ graduated at seven, but they didn't even bother to show up for Sasuke. And here he thought that they had all moved past that year when Tou-san had been playing favorites with his sons.

"Welcome home, Sasuke-kun!" Someone called as he sulked past the kitchen entrance. The twelve year old yelped in surprise and backtracked to see his family sitting at the low kitchen table. A feast laid out before them, still warm if the steam was anything to go by. The youngest Uchiha blinked at the feast then at each of member of his family. Mikoto was smiling like she always did, her eyes closed as she beamed with happiness. She was always the kindest of the lot and genuinely seemed to care for both her sons with equal amounts of love.

Itachi-nii sat beside her, his smile less bright but it was _there_. Sasuke hadn't seen his brother smiling like that in a long time, not since Sasuke joined the Academy at the very least; Itachi always looked so sad and distant that Sasuke was honestly surprised his big brother even remembered _how to_ smile. To Itachi's right, at the head of the table, sat Fugaku who looked as grumpy as he always did; but he seemed to be emitting an aura of smugness and pride nonetheless.

Itachi's smile widened a little, "Well? Are you going to stand there or are you going to celebrate with us?" It sounded odd hearing Itachi amused. For so long he had spoke in a neutral tone with passive expressions. It was almost like someone had taken Itachi out of his own body and stuffed someone else in.

Sasuke blinked again, dumbly. Then he frowned, "Aniki, you promised." Sasuke realized he sounded like a spoiled brat, but given the many broken promises he figured he was entitled to a little pouting. Not that he would call it pouting of course.

Itachi's excuse was, "I know. I'm sorry, Sasuke, but the Hokage needed me for something." It was a pretty damn good one too and one that Sasuke couldn't argue with; but it still irritated Sasuke because Itachi used that excuse _every time_.

Before either boys could say another word, Mikoto stepped forward. "Come now, boys, don't argue." She reprimanded gently. Sasuke was about to say that they weren't arguing, but Itachi dipped his head in an apology before Sasuke could speak. Nii-san always did that, he just went along with whatever their parents said. It was extremely frustrating to Sasuke; he had only seen Itachi lose his temper once about five years ago, but of course he apologized almost immediately afterward.

With a petulant expression on his face, Sasuke sat down across from Itachi; but in reality he was beyond ecstatic. It was a rare occurrence that their whole family could sit down as a whole since most of the time Tou-san or Itachi-nii were gone on patrols and missions leaving Sasuke to spend the night alone with only his mother for company. And beginning tomorrow Sasuke would join his older brother and father and abandon his poor mother to a lonely house.

Most of the meal was spent in silence, with only the quiet noise of people eating to fill the void. When it was just Mikoto and Sasuke, Kaa-chan always had a few things to say, whether it was just chores Sasuke needed to do before bed or the latest comments from Aunt Uruchi about Baby Uchiha Something-or-other. With Tou-san present though, no one spoke and the air was thick with an underlying tension that Sasuke could never explain.

It wasn't until Mikoto had cleared away most of the dishes, with Itachi's help, that Fugaku spoke, "I expect you to make the clan proud, Sasuke."

Sasuke couldn't help but stare at his old man for a moment, normally that was only said to Itachi, before smiling a little and dipping his head in acknowledgment.

Aniki rejoined Sasuke and their father at the table and Sasuke perked up, "Nii-san! Since you're free tonight can we train?" Sasuke was only assuming Itachi was free, since it was rare that he be at home unless it was his off day.

Itachi's face remained as impassive as it always did, but Sasuke knew his older brother enough to know what was coming. Really he would be surprised the day Itachi didn't say, "Forgive me Sasuke… I have a mission in an hour. Maybe next time."

Sasuke _was not_ pouting.

Their father seemed interested at that, "Another mission so soon?" He inquired. Inwardly Sasuke was jealous of Itachi. Never in a million years would Fugaku look at _him_ with that level of interest. All he got was 'make the clan proud'. It was basically a threat.

"Classified" Came Itachi's bland automatic response. His missions were _always_ classified. There was no change in either his father or Aniki's posture, but the air rapidly became more and more tense. It never failed, sooner or later Itachi and Fugaku would butt heads whenever they were in the same room.

Sasuke jumped in before they could really start, "Then how about tomorrow? After I meet with my team, will you train me then?" He felt like a clingy brat begging for attention, but really he loved his big brother and wanted to spend a lot of time with him. He still remembered those old days when Itachi made excuses to their mother _to play with_ Sasuke instead of making excuses of why he couldn't. How Sasuke wished he could return to those days.

Something small flicked him in the forehead and Sasuke glared at his nii-san as he raised a hand to rub at the red spot. Itachi _always_ did that and Sasuke never could figure out why. "I'll still be on my mission then, Sasuke. The day after tomorrow, I promise."

Sasuke knew that Itachi would probably break his promise _again_ but that didn't stop him from grinning like a lunatic.

 **vvv Location Unknown vvv**

 **vvv January 5; 1:46 pm vvv**

 **vvv Nozomi vvv**

"Come _on!_ You said-" I started but Shisui-senpai cut me off before I could tear into him about breaking promises. Again.

"I said for the next target. This one is a potential new member." Shisui-senpai stated firmly in that stupid bland voice of his. The hidden message was 'this one is too strong for you' but I got it loud and clear.

Instead of trying to argue with him, because arguing with Shisui-senpai when he put his foot down was stupid and foolish, I turned to the tallest of the group and flashed him my best puppy eyes, "Kisame-senpaiiiiii..."

For the very first time, Kisame-senpai actually shook his head to my puppy eyes, "No, nusume-osanai. I agree with Shisui on this." I drooped at that, defeated. Once Kisame joined a side when Shisui and I butted heads, there was no persuading him over.

I glanced at the fourth and final person in our group but shrugged off that possibility as soon as I thought it. Sasori-san wouldn't lift a finger to help me unless it benefited him and his art in some way. Though I got along with Sasori-san third best out of the Akatsuki– mostly because Kakuzu hated my guts, Zetsu freaked me out beyond belief, and I never saw the Leader-sama or his Angel– I was still only 'Shisui's responsibility' to Sasori.

In fact all of the Akatsuki, even Kisame-senpai, held me in the same regard. Leader-sama had once flat out told Shisui that I was _his_ responsibility since he was the one who took me off the streets. I was Shisui's to raise, train, order around, and– if he felt like I no longer served my purpose– to kill. Kisame-senpai, being Shisui's partner, did have a hand in my training but not as much as Shisui-senpai. Everything I was, it was because of Shisui-senpai. If not for him I would have probably died in some Yūgakure ditch long ago.

So it burned me inside out when Shisui denied letting me prove my worth to him. I lived to serve Shisui-senpai, and here he was denying me my right as his loyal subordinate. I gave Shisui-senpai a glare worthy of Kakuzu, who had the best glares ever, and crossed my arms with a pout, "You never let me do anything." I whined; it was my way of saying 'fine you win'.

Shisui said nothing else, shocker there, as he turned and left the hotel room he had practically shoved me into before ordering me to stay while he and the others went after this nuke-nin. Sasori didn't even glance at me as he followed Shisui-senpai out of the room, not that I expected him to. Kisame at least gave me an apologetic smile before following his partner. Traitor.

I waited until I couldn't feel their _impressively large, I'll-never-reach-that-level_ chakra signatures anymore before bolting for the door. I would have gone out the window, if the room I was in _had_ a window. Shisui-senpai, the textbook case of a paranoid shinobi, never slept in a room with a window. When I was younger I had been confused because _window equals another escape_ in my mind; but Kisame-senpai was a dear and explained that most high level nuke-nin felt more exposed since they lived their lives always looking over their shoulders. It made sense… I guess.

But that wasn't important, what was important that I had a couple hours of free time without Shisui-senpai beating 'proper etiquette' into my head every second of the day. That meant one thing to me.

'Collecting' things I wanted.

Try as he might, Shisui-senpai had yet to cure me of my kleptomania in the four years I had known him. I always told myself that I would raise above my days as a common street rat but the habit of acquiring things I wanted through very simple means of thievery was just too appealing to stop. It wasn't like the Akatsuki was a moral organization anyway; compared to what some of the members did my thieving was child's play.

Quietly I slipped through the door of our room and set a trap for anyone who entered the room. I planned to be back before Shisui-senpai and the others got back with the new member so anyone trying to enter the room was a trespasser and therefore dead. One does not simply walk into a room leased to three S-class criminals (plus one mediocre student) and expect to live, even if no one is there. There were three things Sasori taught me: setting nasty traps, poison, and chakra strings. Two of the three worked in my favor when it came to stealing, but they also took the fun out of it. It was so easy to just stand on a street corner and sneak a chakra sting into anyone's pocket to take what I want; but there was nothing that compared to stealing things right under someone's nose. I had been a master of the skill before I met Shisui-senpai, and with training from various world class shinobi I was nearly unstoppable.

However there were a few mishaps every now and then. Say for instance when the person I stole from happened to be a kunoichi herself, working undercover as some snotty stuck-up merchant woman.

"I-I'm sorry, Onee-san! I don't mean no harm! My fam'y is starvin' an' I ain't got 'nough Yen to feed them, I don't!" I stuttered, picking up the thick accent that the farmers in the region used. Shisui-senpai had spent two years teaching me nothing but espionage; I knew almost all the accents, mannerisms, and customs throughout the Five Nations and their border nations, save the far backwater places that were rarely visited.

The kunoichi narrowed her eyes, but still maintained her merchant woman persona, "Filthy wretch!" She slapped me, and I had no doubt that she enjoyed it too. I had blown her cover and tipped off her targets, the two small time nuke-nin that were now heading our way. I eyed the pair as they closed in, paying extra close attention to the Bo staff the taller male had strapped across his back. He might be a little harder to handle than his partner, who only wore a tantō on his back. I knew from Shisui that that meant the tantō wielder was a mid to close range fighter, easy to take down once I got free of the kunoichi.

That however was the problem, she was holding onto me as if she intended to use me as a meat shield when the nuke-nin finally attacked. I was guessing she was from Kiri or maybe Iwa then; their shinobi were more apt to sacrifice someone than the other Hidden Villages. Of course she could also be a nuke-nin herself and looking to take in a bounty like Kakuzu did, but if that were true then this woman obviously had recently defected because she still had that 'aura' of being a village stooge.

The nuke-nin pair were only a few feet from us when the kunoichi really blew her cover and actually called out, "Stop! You are both under arrest for crimes against Kirigakure and the Mizukage!" I almost sighed in exasperation. First rule of espionage: never drop your cover, even when your target is dead certain that you're not who you say you are. This kunoichi was obviously on her first solo assignment, no veteran would ever be this dumb. Even the nuke-nin stopped to stare at her in bewilderment, at least they knew the rules.

I shrieked and struggled with renewed vigor, "Ninja! Ninja! Lemme go, I don't want nothin' to do wif ya! Imma just a poor farm girl, I ain't done nothin' wrong!" Throw panic in the mix and we have a nice commotion from the bystanders, chaos to confuse the kunoichi and allow for my escape. I could slip away easily and leave the idiot kunoichi to her two nuke-nin. Besides I have more things to steal, like the pretty hair ornament in the kunoichi's aqua hair I had been caught trying to steal.

Quick as a flash, I reached up and snatched the hair pin before expertly twisting out of the woman's grip and fleeing into the surging masses of panicked civilians. To everyone I was the poor little farm girl caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Shisui-senpai always taught me that when you chose a cover you stick to it, even if your enemies were pulling your teeth out and sticking the red end of a poker to your skin.

The kunoichi's screams for mercy were really pathetic, especially for a Bloody Mist ninja. But hey, it was a nice distraction that made my job even easier.

Some hours later I was back safely in the confines of the hotel room sorting through my loot. Most of the time I went after things I wanted, pretty feminine things and shiny weapons mostly, but every once in a while I liked to just reach into someone's pocket and snatch the first thing I touched. It was always amusing and slightly horrifying of the things I found. My favorite to date was the bound stack of 'sex trophies' I pilfered from a conceited nobleman. I had laughed myself silly when I saw them and, in a fit of mischief, had hidden them around all the hideouts Shisui, Kisame and I visited that month. So far only forty out of fifty-eight had been found; and according to Shisui-senpai, Leader-sama was not pleased _at all_.

Unfortunately none of my pilfered treasures were quite so scandalous this time, though I did find a hit list and a folded note from some harlot providing substantial proof that her son was the child of Lord Okamoto; whom happened to be the brother-in-law of the daimyo in the Land of Frost. That slice of information would please Sasori-san, if he didn't know it already. And the hit list could go to Kakuzu, who was always on the look out for more bounties. I was in desperate need to buy into Kakuzu's good gracious again, that last incident with the bag of Yen had nearly gotten me killed.

I finished sorting through my surprise treasures and was moving on to folding and putting away my new kimonos when Shisui-senpai and entourage walked in. I didn't reacted to their presence. Having been caught enough times with things I didn't own legally, I no longer responded to Shisui-senpai's quiet sigh of disappointment or Kisame's 'tsk'. Honestly, I think I'd give them a heart attack if I _didn't_ shoplift while they were out. Or at least make them wonder who the hell was the imposter.

I held up my new sleeveless beige kimono to inspect it. The material was very durable and surprisingly comfortable– most likely it was a tunic meant for a farmer; but with the right obi and sash I could make it work as a short dress. Maybe some dark skin-tight pants to give it more class, and to keep Shisui-senpai off my back about propriety. I laid it aside and continued sifting through the pile of kimonos.

"Nozomi." In that one word I knew that Shisui-senpai was irritated. I had learned quickly that the only way you could tell how Shisui was feeling was how he said someone's name, and even then you had to pay careful attention because it was always very subtle. The slight emphasis on the ' _mi_ ' syllable meant that Shisui was at the end of his rope and ready to murder someone. Not that he would, my senpai was a very controlled man and rarely lost his temper.

I finished folding the kimono I was holding, a small revenge for not taking me along, and looked over my shoulder at the men, "Give me a minute to store these away." I quipped and quickly did as I promised. With Sasori-san in the mix, my lease for stalling time was cut to almost nil and I knew better than to try the puppet master's patience. I shoved my beige kimono in my shoulder bag along with a pale blue obi and red sash, intending to wear it later, and stored the rest into the storage scrolls I always carried with me. When you're a kleptomaniac, you learned quickly to bring along storage scrolls or suffer carrying all your stuff yourself.

"So where's the newbie?" I asked as I placed the scrolls in my bag with gentle care. These things carried precious treasures, I had just gotten my new stuff and I didn't want them ruined so soon.

When no one answered me I looked at the group with a raised eyebrow. That was when I noticed the fourth person standing slightly behind Sasori. Her long blinding yellow hair was tied back at the base of her neck with a long fringe sweeping over her Iwa headband and covering her left slate blue eye. She was rather pretty, I would admit, but that drab green kimono shirt she had on was _hideous_ , it clashed so horribly with her hair and eyes.

"You obviously need fashion pointers." I concluded as I turned away to finish putting away my new things.

There was a beat of silence broken only by Kisame's smothered snort of amusement before the new girl spoke, "…What?" Her voice was surprisingly deep, at least for a female. She must have had a throat injury some time in her life, that or she had inhaled too much smoke from a fire. Though the latter was unlikely as she didn't have that raspy quality in her voice that indicated as such.

I gave her another scrutinizing look, "That shirt with your hair is a nightmare. People with bright hair colors shouldn't wear dull things; and while the green was a good choice of color it needs to be much brighter to mute the boldness of your hair." I eyed her low tail with disdain and added, "Also that hairstyle… it's too plain. With hair like yours, you could really pull off a lot of intricate hairstyles. I think you'd look great with twin tails or maybe have your hair swept to one side. That low tail just makes you look too masculine."

The new girl inhaled sharply, her nostrils widening very unpleasantly, "You think I'm a girl?!" She– well _he_ apparently, growled.

I kept my face carefully blank and pushed down the urge to blush at my blunder. Though, honestly it wasn't _my_ fault, this male looked so much like a girl it was kind of inevitable to make the mistake. I blamed my three traveling companions for not telling me what gender the new member was. I cast a critical eye over the boy, trying to find anything that would discern him from being a women. Other than the flat chest, there was nothing really.

"Well you still have horrible taste in clothing and you need a haircut then." I said casually.

The new member snarled and reached into the overly large pouch belted around his waist. Shisui-senpai's hand snapped out to grab the boy's wrist in a tight grip. There was a tense moment of silence before Shisui-senpai yanked the boy's hand out of the pouch with a force that popped the younger male's shoulder. Being a shinobi, the boy didn't outright react to the sudden injury, but a muscle in his cheek did jump.

Meanwhile, Kisame and Sasori eyed the new member, ready to leap into action if Shisui didn't. I would love to say that their actions were out of concern for my well being, and Shisui's probably was, but I knew that Kisame and Sasori were probably looking for a fight. Both of them were the two most blood-thirsty members of the Akatsuki; though Sasori-san was more of a sadist than an outright monster like Kisame-senpai.

Shisui-senpai stared impassively at the blonde youth until he was squirming before speaking, "You will not harm her." That was it. There was no promise of retribution or threat of any kind, and there didn't need to be. When Shisui said something, it had better be followed through or the consequence was so unimaginably horrific that that simple words couldn't do it justice. Shisui was from the Uchiha clan, one of the few clans internationally known and feared; and it was said that he had been the most powerful member before he defected from Konohagakure. He was an S-class ninja for a reason and I wasn't going to be the fool to doubt him.

The new member yanked his arm away and pouted. Actually _pouted_. I would expect such behavior from a genin or some no class chūnin, but from an S-class nuke-nin? Either Iwagakure was lowering their standards on the requirements for S-class or this act was just to lower people's guards. With his age I would guess the former; but the Akatsuki didn't let just any immature nuke-nin into their organization, no matter how powerful, so that probably meant he was a prodigy with an excellent cover. My lips twitched up in a classic 'Kisame smirk'. A puzzle then, how I loved puzzles!

"What's your problem, un?" The boy snapped when he noticed me staring.

"I hate not knowing things, so I will enjoy unlocking your secrets, nuke-nin-san." I said happily and got the strangest look from the newest member but I disregarded it. No one had ever said that those raised by S-classed criminals were sane.

 **vvv Konohagakure; Hi no Kuni vvv**

 **vvv January 5; 4:24 pm vvv**

 **vvv Itachi vvv**

"…that's when we found out the whole point of the test was teamwork! It was kinda dumb that way, but anyway-"

Itachi abruptly cut off his brother's teammate, "Why do you say that?" When he had come to pick up Sasuke for dinner, Itachi had extended an offer of a meal with the Uchiha family to Sasuke's two teammates. He could already tell that the new Team 7 was going to learn the hard way how to be a team and so it would be best for them to start teamwork early.

Naruto-kun made a very inappropriate noise, "Because, why do I wanna work with _him?!_ " At that, the blonde child sent a dark look to Sasuke, who returned it with equal fervor.

Itachi casually swatted Sasuke upside the head and shot him a disapproving look. If Kaa-san ever found out that Sasuke was being rude to Kushina-san's child without due reason, their mother would have his head. Of course, Sasuke didn't know that, but it was still good practice to be polite even under the most revolting of circumstances.

When Naruto laughed at Sasuke for the silent reprimand, Itachi gave the same regard to the blonde jinchūriki. "You shouldn't so readily dismiss a comrade, Naruto-kun." Itachi chided patiently. Naruto gave the older Uchiha the stink eye and crossed his arms in a pout, but inwardly he was ecstatic that the teen treated him as equally as he did his brother, and not like a pest the way some people did.

"Nii-san," Sasuke interjected before Naruto could continue stealing his brother's attention, "when are we going to train? You promised you would!" Sasuke had been elated, on the inside, when Itachi showed up at Training Ground 3 after Team 7 completed their second genin exam. He could hardly believe that Itachi-nii had actually kept his promise for once, but now his stupid teammates were ruining it!

Itachi's expression didn't change from his default neutral, but there was something about his eyes that made the Uchiha heir look amused, "Now that you're on a team, I thought it'd be best to train all three of you together." It was for the best too, Itachi knew that Kakashi-taichō wouldn't bother teaching his genin team as much as the other jounin sensei. Which was why Itachi had offered his former ANBU Captain to help train his trio of genin, whom readily took him up on his offer.

" _What?!"_

"Yatta! You'd do that?! You're the best, Itachi-nii-san!"

"Um… but what about our sensei?"

Itachi chose to respond to Sasuke first. He leveled his best imitation of Mikoto's disappointed look at his younger brother, "You're on a team, Sasuke, a family. You can't keep hogging my attention for yourself." Sasuke at least had the decency to look abashed, if only a little. "As for you're question, Haruno-chan, Kakashi-san is often busy in the mornings, I offered to train you until then." A flat out lie, but Itachi honestly didn't think that any of Team 7 had the patience to wait three to eight hours every morning for the rest of their genin career.

"Now come," Itachi continued before the genin could speak again, "Kaa-san has invited Team 7 to dinner, and it's best not to keep her waiting." The way Naruto's face lit up in sheer joy was a little heartbreaking, but it made Mikoto's offer so much more appreciable that not even Sakura or Sasuke protested to having spend another minute around the loudmouth blonde.

 **vvv Capital, Hi no Kuni vvv**

 **vvv January 27; 3:29 pm vvv**

 **vvv Nozomi vvv**

"Shisui-senpai? Can you come here, please?" I called from behind the changing screen. Try as I might, I was hopeless when it came to fixing my hair. It was a little embarrassing with the amount of time I spent obsessing over my appearance, that I couldn't even put my hair up in a ponytail without having a stupid 'fin' somewhere. I always envied kunoichi who could twist their hair into the most complex hairstyles so easily they did it on the run.

My senpai tapped softly against the screen's frame before slipping around it. I smiled up at him and held up the ends of my wispy silver locks, "Help?" I asked sweetly and gave the twenty-one year old my best puppy eyes.

Without even a sigh of exasperation, Shisui motioned to me to turn around and face the full length mirror. I did so happily and closed my eyes to the feel of Shisui running his fingers through my long hair, "What style do you wish?" He asked in that delicious low tone of his. I loved the way Shisui-senpai talked; with his perfect speech and smooth baritone it wasn't difficult to be mesmerized by his voice alone. Even Leader-sama appreciated Shisui's silver tongue and diplomacy, since he was always sending Shisui on member recruiting missions. It was so unfortunate that Shisui-senpai believed small talk was a waste of time and breath. I would pay anything to hear his rich voice more.

"Hm, well I have to infiltrate a sadō and my Target supposedly likes mature women, so something chic and mature. Oh!" I startled, remembering something, and reached out for the makeup bag I kept on me at all times. Unfortunately my movements were roughly halted when I felt a painful tug on my hair. Apparently Shisui-senpai hadn't let my poor hair go.

This time he did sigh at my actions and reached around me to hand the bag to me, "Stay still." He ordered.

I pouted at him in the mirror and dug blindly in the make up bag until I unearthed a case that held all my hair dyes. A few years ago Sasori-san accidentally made a powder that, when added to water, made a temporary hair dye that didn't ruin the hair follicles. The dyes were perfect for me, since my white hair could be blended perfectly into any color. That combined with Sasori's poisons and Shisui's lessons on espionage, made me into the perfect spy and assassin.

Setting the case down on my lap I flicked open the little latch and pushed the lid up, "Here," I said handing Shisui a navy blue pouch, "this is the dye I need. Can you do it? I always miss my lower layers." Which was untrue, but I still preferred Shisui to do it as he was my senpai. Senpai looked out for their kohai, that was the unspoken agreement between anyone who had a senpai/kohai relationship. Even if they were an Akatsuki member and one misplaced orphan from Yūgakure.

Besides, Shisui had the gentlest hands in the universe. No matter how tangled my hair became, I never felt a sharp tug when I had Shisui-senpai brush it out.

 **vvv Location Classified vvv**

 **vvv Date & Time Withheld vvv**

 **vvv ANBU Operative Weasel vvv**

ANBU Operative Weasel scanned the chattering nobles passively from the alcove designed specifically for hidden bodyguards. His client tittered with another girl from behind their ornamental fans so that only their dewy, kohl-lined eyes were visible above the fan's beaded arc. The ANBU captain's eyes darted to each shadowed corners of the room, taking in a headcount of his team. All were still in place, crouched and ready to spring into action if the tagged assassins made a move towards the noblewoman they guarded. Three of the seven known assassins were already apprehended and disposed of.

If Weasel was honest with himself, he would say that this mission did not qualify to be classified as an S-rank, he had no doubt that even a team of chūnin could handle the mission just fine. They wouldn't complete it with the finesse of an ANBU team, and they might blow their cover a few times, but they'd still get the job done. But if the Hokage had assigned the mission to one of his ANBU squads that meant there was something else at play than just guarding a vain noblewoman. The assassins were supposedly associated with a nuke-nin wanted for sabotage; the ANBU Squad were tasked with bringing in at least two of the men for questioning about their boss's whereabouts.

As Weasel checked on the remaining assassins, he spotted a young girl, no older than himself, stumbling over her long kimono skirt and accidentally knocking over one of the low tables, which in turn catapulted the teapot into the air. All attention turned towards the airborne teapot and no one noticed the girl palming a few priceless items just before the pot crashed into her chest and sent hot tea down the front of her kimono. The girl aptly shrieked in surprise and pain as she tried to clean the liquid off her clothes with a heavily embroidered silk handkerchief. Weasel raised an eyebrow at the scene, had he not noticed the girl stealing he would have written her off as a clumsy oaf. Even now, as the nobles crowded around the poor girl to ensure that she was okay and to scold her for being clumsy, Weasel wondered if he had imagined her tucking a pouch into her kimono.

The ANBU Captain shunshined to the rafters above the commotion to get a better look. Now that he was a few scant feet above the pickpocket he noticed that the ruby necklace handing from her neck actually belonged to his client's sister, and the pearl hairpin that held her immaculate navy blue hair in place used to pin back a redhead's hair. The ANBU captain looked for the redhead, and found that her hair was up in the same bun it had been, only instead of the priceless pearl hairpin, it was a silver-painted chopstick with a fake pearl glued to the tip. To someone who didn't pay attention to details, the chopstick looked like the original hairpin, likely not even the redhead knew the difference.

The real question was: how on earth did the pickpocket manage to make the hairpin trade, steal the sister's necklace, _and_ steal from the table she had just visited all without raising even the slightest iota of suspicion? Weasel looked for the navy haired girl again and found her accidentally bumping into a rotund nobleman and knocking his sake over onto the pretty blonde hanging from his arm. The girl apologized profusely and continued on her way, as if she were still trying to escape her embarrassment with the teapot. Only Weasel noticed that her right hand now held a wallet made of embroidered silk, which she quickly tucked into her voluminous kimono sleeve.

A quiet swish of a body flicker jutsu informed ANBU Weasel of another shinobi's arrival, "Captain?" ANBU Frog whispered. Weasel glanced at Frog from behind his mask, but otherwise made no sign that he acknowledged the operative's presence.

"Navy hair, green kimono– ivy embroidery. Who is she?" Weasel asked.

Frog eyed the girl in question as she joined the group of nobles form the Hamaguchi family, taking in her appearance, before disappeared quickly. The operative returned with the list of guests, procured silently from the guards standing at the doorway leading into the large room. "Konomi, new concubine to the second son of Lord Hamaguchi." As if to prove a point, the second son put his arm around the pickpocket's waist and leaned down to whisper in her ear. She giggled.

Weasel narrowed his eyes at the young girl and wondered if she were an untagged assassin, as unlikely as it was. An assassin would not blow their cover so naively to steal baubles. Maybe she was a mercenary working undercover for someone else. The girl couldn't be just a concubine; while petty thievery was not above the nobility, especially not a concubine, none were so skilled in the art as that girl. Weasel watched as she played the perfect awkward concubine at her first noble event, working the room with an air of arrogance and conceit, all the while robbing the lords and ladies blind in the process. And while the secret spectacle was amusing, Weasel eventually returned to his post after the next assassin tried to make a move on his client.

The next day, the entire Hamaguchi household was dead from an unknown plant-based poison and the concubine was gone as if she never existed.

^o^

Ta-da! Next chapter and boy is it filled with some interesting developments! I could have written more, but I felt like this was a good ending for the second chapter, a nice almost cliffhanger for ya, cuz my loyal readers know how much I love cliffhangers! ^^ Sorry for jumping around with all the changing POVs, but it's the only way I can show what's happening at two places. *squee* Big Brother Itachi is so cute! Imma gonna enjoy all the times he has with Team 7!

I kinda feel bad for not giving Shisui many speaking parts, but I just feel that the Akatsuki!Shisui is a very quiet version of his canon self. We've already established that he's a lot more serious than Canon Shisui, but I'll try to give him more dialogue in the future. Just don't kill me if I don't, it's really hard trying to come up with realistic situations where he'd actually talk quite a bit, at least for a little while.

 _As for Shisui's Mangekyu: No one in the Akatsuki knows he has it, least of all Kotoamatsukami. Everyone just thinks he's got a silver tongue as Nozomi described. They think he can convince anyone into joining when actually he's just using his Mangekyu._

 **Ages as of the end of this chapter: Team 7 (12), Deidara (16), Nozomi (17), Itachi (18), Shisui (21), and Kisame (29)**

Flame Friendly!


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

BTW: Masanari Tamashi belongs to FLPOLE01.

Also, I watched Toy Story 3 again and I became so nostalgic that I nearly cried, I have no clue why. I've never done this before! Ugh, I'm still emotional… 。・゜・(ノД`)・゜・。

So sorry… I kinda got distracted with the Harry Potter fandom (I _finally_ got around to reading the books instead of just watching the movies). It was only by the continuous nagging of my P.I.C. (partner in crime), FLPOLE01, that I was reminded I have obligations to another fandom… **TALKINGBIRDGUY WHY DID YOU RECOMMEND THE SERIES TO ME?!** **I was happy with my ignorance of the Potter fandom!** _ **NOW I'M RUINED!**_

 _Special thanks to: **Talkingbirdguy, Crack-jouchan, ultimatefangirlchild, JumpingBunny23, Orochimaru (guest), Susanoo, kellyshl, and animechick247** for reviews._

 **vvv**

 _Hidden Messages_

 _Through Broken Sunlight_

 **vvv Location Unknown vvv**

 **vvv January 29; 9:00 am vvv**

 **vvv Kisame vvv**

One hour.

That was how long the nusume-osanai was overdue and in the life of an infiltrator, that was a lifetime. Kisame shifted from under the tree boughs and glanced at his partner sitting unnaturally still, eyes closed. The Uchiha had always been a quiet one, and no one could ever get a read on him unless you really _knew_ him like Kisame and Nozomi did. And even they had a hard time determining what exactly were Shisui's thoughts.

To someone who didn't know what to look for, they would say that Uchiha Shisui didn't care one iota that his disciple was missing in action. But to Kisame, he saw the younger man's eyebrow twitch once in such a small miniscule way that if Kisame had not already been staring at his partner's face looking for those particular twitches, he would have missed it. Shisui was agitated. In another hour, Kisame was sure that Shisui would disappear to search for Nozomi himself.

The large shark-hybrid grinned to himself behind his Akatsuki collar. The rest of the organization could say what they liked about Shisui behind his back, Kisame knew the truth. The man was gentle and good-hearted desperately trying to hide it all beneath a hard facade. Even Kisame had once bought Shisui's lie, long ago, before a silver haired girl with a wallet in her hand came crashing into their lives.

Since that day, Kisame caught very brief glimpses of who Uchiha Shisui was when he was still a ninja of the Hidden Leaf. They were often small and insignificant moments, things someone would overlook. Things like fixing Nozomi's hair whenever she asked or giving her his rarely used blanket on chilly nights while the girl tried to catch a few extra minutes of sleep.

Or worrying when Nozomi didn't arrive at the designated time.

Shisui stood suddenly, much sooner than Kisame expected. Kisame gave his partner a careful casual glance. "Going to look for her?" He asked, though he already knew the answer. Instead of responding, the Uchiha simply walked off, heading for the road half a mile east of where they waited. As Kisame watched, Shisui faded from his sight; it was just a blur that momentarily disrupted Shisui's silhouette and then he was no longer there. The Kiri nuke-nin huffed at the sight of Shisui's mastery over the Shunshin jutsu. It wasn't that impressive by itself, but the way Kisame had seen his partner utilize the simple D-rank jutsu in battle was nothing short of amazing.

There was little doubt why Uchiha Shisui was an S-class ninja, that was for sure. The question was how someone as caring as he could have possibly ended up being a missing-nin.

 **vvv Shisui vvv**

To say that Shisui was worried was a lie. He was confident that Nozomi could take care of herself, she had been trained for this and Shisui did not train failures. Especially when his student was playing such a dangerous game. To be loyal to the Akatsuki was a death sentence; if anyone tagged her as a subordinate for the organization, Nozomi would be executed without question; by those who discovered her or by the Akatsuki themselves it didn't matter. She knew the risks that ever spy undertook, regardless of their loyalty. Shisui had made sure that Nozomi knew _exactly_ what she was getting into, and she still charged through with all that bullheaded stubbornness he had come to expect from her.

No, Shisui wasn't worried at all, it would be an insult to her if he was. He was _pissed_ because he knew exactly what was taking her so long. When Shisui had first began training Nozomi he had been worried that she wouldn't amount to anything; but through hard work and pure resolve reminiscent of Shisui's older brother, Nozomi became one of the best infiltrators the Akatsuki had. And she _loved_ it. She loved the disguises and pretending to be someone else entirely. She loved _fooling_ people. It didn't matter who or why she was doing it, Nozomi enjoyed tricking people and manipulating them into giving her what she wanted.

But that was the problem. Nozomi loved her job too much and she often got lost in it. Shisui had no doubt that Nozomi was around somewhere, still prancing around as a navy haired concubine and robbing innocent bystanders blind. The Uchiha knew that Nozomi was in no rights a moral person, and why should she be?

The people in Yūgakure weren't not morally upright by any means. They were far more concerned with increasing their own wealth, even if they cheated someone. The street rats in that thieving village were even worse, as they weren't above killing someone for money. Nozomi was a girl born and raised in Yūgakure, she didn't know anything else but stealing; and now she was a student to an S-class nuke-nin.

Not the best way to learn ethics, really.

Still, Shisui had taught Nozomi that her job as a spy and assassin came first and her _hobby_ was to stay out of her work. Sadly, that was the only lesson that Nozomi conveniently forgot no matter how many times Shisui reminded her of it.

Shisui's Akatsuki cloak snapped out as a rather violent wind funneled down the forest road he was traveling on. Shisui frowned and lowered his head against the gust, a hand reaching up to grip the collar of his robe. He flinched when his fingers brushed against the necklace he wore under his shirt. He hated that necklace but was too attached to throw it away. It had been one of the last gifts Shisui had received from his brother before he had died. _'These three circles represent your family, your friends, and your village. Remember them well, Shisui-kun, because they're all connected and if you lose one you lose them all."_ How right Shisui's brother was. He betrayed his family for Konoha, but in the process he had also lost his friends and the village he was protecting.

Now all he could do was spend the remainder of his sad life trying to repay the large sin he had amassed against his own soul.

 **vvv Rural Village; Hi no Kuni vvv**

 **vvv January 29; 11:22 am vvv**

 **vvv Nozomi vvv**

I pouted like a petulant child who didn't get her way as I followed after Shisui-senpai. I knew it was extremely childish of me, but _come on_ , Shisui-senpai just _had_ to show up right as soon as I was about to snatch one of the biggest diamonds I've ever seen right off some oblivious fat lady's neck. I had reaching for the necklace clasp when my mentor ruined it all by calling out my name– the fake one I used as a concubine of course– in that specific voice he used when he was pissed.

And boy was Shisui-senpai pissed. The moment I picked him out of the crowd, which wasn't hard to do considering he was taller than the average man and the only one in the whole town wearing the Akatsuki cloak, I could tell that the lecture this time would be a long one. Shisui-senpai might even _shout_.

Sadly, Shisui's arrival also woke up the four sluggish guards that the fat lady had and all of them realized at once that my sticky little fingers were two inches from their lady's neck. I was glad Shisui had been there to get me out of the mess because I was in no way a direct fighter.

But then again, that whole thing was his fault anyway. Had he just waited _one more second_ I'd have my prize and he'd have me in custody again.

Shisui-senpai suddenly stopped and I ran straight into his back because I hadn't been paying attention. Instead of backing away I just leaned into him, too annoyed to care at the moment that we might possibly be under attack and I was hindering my senpai from moving properly. Besides, it was Shisui-senpai.

I wasn't deaf; I had once heard the other Akatsuki members say that, after Leader-sama, Shisui was probably the most powerful ninja in their ranks. When S-class shinobi unanimously agree someone is more powerful than they are, they aren't being modest about their own skills.

"Report." Came Shisui's soft order. I frowned and tilted my head up to see if he was talking to me. Shisui-senpai never made me report before, not verbally at least. He knew that I would go off on a tangent about something else entirely– something way more interesting– and completely forget the details of a report. He said it was better for me to do written reports anyway, that way I could practice my calligraphy. We even had a game, well a game to me and whatever else to Shisui, that I had to write my reports using the general writing tics of the area I had been working in.

There was a rustling to the side of the road, up in the trees, and I knew that Shisui-senpai hadn't been talking to me. I felt mildly alarmed that I hadn't realized we were being tailed. I blamed that on my annoyance, when I was annoyed I barely paid attention to anything. Besides I was trained in subterfuge and assassinations. Tracking was _not_ my forte. In fact, I was sure that only Kakuzu-san was the only true tracker in the Akatsuki; and maybe Zetsu too. Everyone else probably just picked up the skill as they went.

A boy shifted out from the foliage, it was obvious he had ninja training; it was just one second he wasn't there and the next he was. My annoyance rose several levels, I was hopeless at tracking people if they had even the slightest bit of stealth training. It was frustrating that this brat was able to slip past my senses. But at least he wasn't skilled enough to get past Shisui-senpai, no one was.

"Masanari Tamashi, reporting, Akatsuki-san." The boy said huskily. Immediately I disliked him, how dare he use that silky tone on Shisui-senpai! He was _my_ senpai and no one but I could have him. I fisted my hands in Shisui's cloak, ready to pull him away if that… _bastard_ made any more advances.

Shisui, however, just nodded apathetically signaling the boy to continue.

"Target A has made contact with Target B as predicted. Package was exchanged. Package intercepted." And out from underneath the boy's voluminous, and horrifyingly plain, cloak he held out a scroll for Shisui to take–and was that something shiny I spied underneath the cloak? Shisui accepted the scroll and, after a brief inception of the contents, tucked it into his own cloak. The Masanari brat continued, his voice still husky, "Operative One took out both Targets. All witnesses eliminated… save one."

That caught our attention. Shisui narrowed his eyes at the brat while I scoffed at his incompetence. Termination of all witnesses was just part of an assassin's job. If you got cold feet while slitting the throat of a nosy old lady who happened to see you gutting her neighbor while tending to her stupid flowers, then you obviously weren't cut out for the job.

The inept assassin laid his eyes on me and cut the formal report, "I assume the girl is an asset?" Whoa, wait a minute! I was the witness? What the hell, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. All I did there was steal a few things and get caught by…

Oh.

"She is."

Still mildly upset with my senpai I couldn't help but swat him on the shoulder, "Why did you tell me that my last target was _a_ Target?" I snapped indignantly. This was so embarrassing, if I had accidentally botched this Masanari guy's take down then Leader-sama would not be happy, and neither would Kakuzu and whoever was _paying_ us for the job. And Shisui-senpai and Masanari would be irreconcilable.

Shisui sent me a look over his shoulder, "I did."

Calling my fake name in _That_ voice did not count as a warning, I don't care what you say. I harrumphed and took a step away from my senpai with a pout. I shot a nasty look at the Masanari brat, this was all _his_ fault. If the fat noble lady wasn't a Target then I could have gotten that diamond and suffered only a few harsh looks from Shisui-senpai for failing to report in on time.

"Come." Shisui stated and continued walking away.

The Masanari brat fell in step behind him and I jogged to take my place at his left side, but not before sending a look over my shoulder that clearly staked my claim on Shisui-senpai. The brat only gave me a brief confused look hinted with amusement before wiping his face clean of any emotion.

 **vvv Konohagakure; Hi no Kuni vvv**

 **vvv February 13; 8:48 am vvv**

 **vvv Omnipresent vvv**

It had been only a few weeks since the Hamaguchi Assassination and yet there was no leads that could possibly point to who or where the suspect had come from. Upon inspection of the Hamaguchi accounts and inventories it was made apparent that the concubine had made off with almost all the valuables. Many papers had been missing from Lord Hamaguchi's study, including any reference papers for servants, several ledgers from the present to three years past, and possibly various books if the near empty bookcase was believed to have once been filled. Anything that might have a servant's name listed was gone.

Whoever the girl had been working for was very thorough in making sure that the murders could not be traced back to a specific person. There was no clear motive but the job was done all to well to be just a petty revenge killing. The poison had been a mixture of several toxins, both natural and chemical, from all over the world which only told them how far the assassin's range extended. There was no one in the mansion to interrogate. Servants that survived the night, if there _were_ survivors, had vanished in the night and without records of employment there was no way of knowing who had once been employed.

After the sixth dead end the Hokage finally closed the case as unsolved and put out a description of the suspect for all jounin and ANBU operatives, as well as to the bounty offices. If she was found she would be detained immediately for interrogation.

"Oi oi oi!" Itachi momentarily froze at the familiar line often spoken by his best friend. For one small second he thought that if he would just look up, there Shisui would be playfully scolding him for 'making that face' again.

Sadly it was only a wasteful hope. Instead of the curly dark haired Uchiha whom he saw as an older brother, Itachi got a noisy blonde who viewed _him_ as the older brother. "Itachi-nii-san, are you alright? You look tired." Naruto tugged at the elder Uchiha's shirtsleeve.

"That's only because you keep nagging on him, Naruto!" Sakura snapped and was prepared to bash her stupid teammate's head in when she remembered that Itachi-san didn't stand for her abusing her comrades the way Kakashi-sensei did. The pink haired girl's fist stopped inches from the cringing blonde and she looked up sheepishly to see Sasuke's older brother giving her a stern look.

"A-ah… Gomen, Itachi-san!" Sakura stuttered as she pulled away and gave him a very quick bow. Like Sasuke-kun, Itachi had an indifferent aura around him, but it was much more potent than his younger brother. While Sasuke-kun's aloofness made him look cool, Itachi's frigid callousness made him feel _dangerous_.

"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to."

Sakura's young face twisted in an ugly grimace and she turned to glare at the blonde idiot now hiding behind Itachi-san. "…sorry…" She finally managed to grind out, making sure that every bit of reluctance and falsehood was obvious in her voice.

Naruto gave her a cheesy grin and chose to ignore her insincerity, "S'okay, dattebayo!" He said quickly before reaching up to tug on Itachi's short sleeve again, "Hey, hey, Itachi-nii-san what are you going to be teaching us today? Something cool, right?! Something way better than tree-walking _right_?!"

Itachi glanced down at Naruto and felt a small twitch at the corner of his mouth. He hadn't smiled so much since Shisui had left; but Naruto just had that ability to make people either want to smile at his antics or strangle him. "Not until you complete tree-walking."

Naruto pouted and took a step away from his awesome brother, "Awww~ but Teme and Sakura-chan already learned it and I don't want to- grk!" Naruto stumbled a step back in surprise when two fingers poked him hard in the forehead.

"There are no shortcuts to being powerful, Naruto-kun." Itachi said, amusement coloring his voice. "Every great ninja starts out small."

"But you didn't! You're a genius! That's what everyone at the Academy said to Teme!"

Across the training grounds, clearly pouting though he would deny it with every fiber of his being, Sasuke scoffed. Growing up he never saw much of his brother and now his teammates were taking all of Aniki's time! Even worse, Itachi-nii looked like he enjoyed their company much more than Sasuke's; Sasuke had never seen his brother smile so much. It just wasn't fair!

"Yes, but I will never amount to what you can, Naruto-kun. My threshold of skill is very limited." Itachi countered calmly. And it was true, but not for the reason of Naruto being the jinchūriki; Itachi's early development had already crippled his chakra reserves. Itachi might be powerful, but his slightly below average chakra level would hinder him for the rest of his life. Time would always be against Itachi when it came to battles that requires chakra.

That gave Naruto a pause at least, "Really?" He asked as if he didn't believe it. And how could he? All throughout the Academy the teachers always held up Uchiha Itachi as being the model student; even Iruka-sensei, who hadn't taught the Uchiha Prodigy. The fact that such a _legend_ was telling Naruto that the blonde would one day surpass him with such utter conviction…

It was a surreal feeling, having someone so strong believe in you. And Naruto decided he liked it a lot.

Itachi's small smile turned to an indulgent smirk "Yes really." He left it at that and began instructing Naruto once again in the art of tree-walking, calmly and effectively pointing out the blonde boy's mistakes and tips on how to correct them. Never once did he raise his voice in exasperation or show any signs of impatience like most would have done, and for that Naruto was even more grateful.

Naruto liked Itachi-nii-san. Not just because the teenage treated him fairly, which was more than what most people did; but because Itachi reminded Naruto of a more sedated and collected Iruka-sensei– someone who didn't mind being around Naruto. Even Kakashi-sensei treated Naruto with more distance than he did Sakura-chan or Teme. It was always Naruto who received the reprimands first, Naruto who was told 'later' and 'not now'. It wasn't that Naruto didn't like Kakashi-sensei, he just hadn't warmed up to the perpetually late man yet.

Not like Itachi-nii-san at least. But still, while Itachi was much more friendly than most people Naruto knew that Itachi wasn't completely… in the present. Itachi-nii-san hid it well, but Naruto could smell a hopeless case from miles away. There were times when the older Uchiha would get a far off look in his eyes, or his brow would momentarily lower in a frown. But such instances were rare and gone so quickly that Naruto wasn't entirely sure they had ever been there.

Whatever it was, Itachi-nii-san was a nice guy, but he obviously had something heavy on his mind. It was strange Naruto was the only one who seemed to notice it. Especially considering that Itachi's own brother was on Team 7.

Itachi jabbed Naruto in the forehead, causing the blonde to stumble back, "You mustn't zone out, Naruto-kun, or you will never master this exercise."

Naruto rubbed his sore forehead as he looked up at Itachi with a pout, "You don't gotta do that ya know, ttebayo!" He pointed out. Itachi simply closed his eyes with a smile as he had often did to Sasuke when his younger brother said something amusing to him.

 **vvv Location Unknown vvv**

 **vvv January 29; 6:12 pm vvv**

 **vvv Nozomi vvv**

Shisui-senpai grabbed my fist without effort and threw it down. I used the momentum to swing my legs up and over my head into an axe kick; but that too was deflected easily by my senpai. He just grabbed my ankle and threw me across the clearing. I grimaced as I tried to pull my feet under me and land properly, but it wouldn't do any good. I could already tell that the way I was falling I'd break something. I closed my eyes and braced for impact.

Something grabbed my obi I suddenly stopped with a sharp jerk to my middle. I peeked out of one eye to see Masanari Tamashi standing horizontal on a tree trunk, holding me just a few feet from the ground. I glared at her, still sore over the fact that once again I had mistaken a gender for another. Though, in my defense this time it was intentional on her part. She had been disguised as a male bodyguard rather than not taking the extra time to actually _try_ and look like her gender; which couldn't be said for _Deidara_. Now that the Tamashi woman had changed out of her disguise and into a skin tight black jumpsuit there was no mistaking her gender.

It had been hours since my first encounter with him– _her–_ and she still hadn't _left_. In fact, she seemed pretty comfortable in staying the night with us, which was strange in itself. Most spies would report in and run off within minutes, if not _seconds_ , in case Kisame or Shisui-senpai were in a bad mood that day. While my two senpai were the least likely to act without thinking, well Shisui was and he could stop Kisame from acting irrationally sometimes, it was still a fact that bad moods in the Akatsuki normally ended with someone being turned into a bloody smear on the ground.

The Tamashi woman dropped me the remaining distance and I flopped ungracefully to the ground in a tangle of limbs. Quickly I righted myself with a huff, "I don't need your help!" I snapped up at the older woman.

The Tamashi woman tilted her head, "Would you rather have a broken leg?" She asked sincerely and sarcastically at the same time as she jumped to the ground. "I can still give you one if you want." She whispered in an unintentional husky voice. Another irritating fact was that stupid sultry tone of hers was _natural_. I could never tell if she was flirting with Shisui-senpai and Kisame or not.

She was like me, an assassin and spy for the Akatsuki; but her talents laid mostly in combat rather than infiltration, specifically in Sojutsu. The Tamashi woman was often assigned the 'boring' jobs because of that, ones that usually ended in a fight. I preferred the sneaky way, filled with dark nights and poisons and small hidden weapons and the feeling of victory when I pulled off a successful job without bringing even the slightest iota of suspicion on me.

Across the camp, Kisame snorted, "A broken leg might be a lesson to the nusume-osanai."

"Kisame-senpai!" I wailed. I had always thought that at least _he_ would have my side against the Tamashi woman. It turns out that Kisame-senpai and the Tamashi woman knew each other from the last war, in the bad sort of way. At least, I took it as the bad way when the Tamashi woman tried to attack Kisame upon seeing him.

I don't care if she's supposed to be _the_ master of the Naginata, attacking a well known trigger-happy S-class kenjutsu expert with a chakra eating sword was suicidal at it's finest. Unfortunately she wasn't dead yet.

Shisui spoke before anyone else could, "Again, Nozomi." Without hesitance I shot to my feet and charged at Shisui-senpai again, my right first held at shoulder height in an attempt for a right hook. I knew it wouldn't get through his defense, which was why I had a kunai in my left hand, hidden from Shisui-senpai's sight.

I would like to say that I caught Shisui off guard, but that would be a lie. He didn't even need his sharingan to predict my follow up move, or every move after. It was annoying, but expected. Even though Shisui and Kisame were both experts of taijutsu, they never bothered really teaching me it other than in self defense when I first started traveling with them. For one, Kisame's style required more strength than I would ever possess and Shisui's relied heavily on the Body Flicker technique, a jutsu I had yet to master and probably never would. There was a reason why Shisui was the only shinobi known for mastering such a simple technique; and not just because no one else every thought to do it.

Another reason for my lack of taijutsu skill was because Shisui-senpai and Kisame mainly focused their teachings on kenjutsu and speed, something they were both _very_ good at; better than hand to hand combat anyway. Shisui sometimes taught me genjutsu and Kisame gave me a few low level Suiton ninjutsu to learn; but my weapon of choice would always be swords in a straight fight. As it should be, I did have two kenjutsu masters as my senpai, didn't I?

Shisui-senpai once again caught my attack and flung me across the clearing, this time towards Kisame. The shark-man caught me easily and set me down on the ground beside him and continued cooking dinner as if flying teenagers was a regular for him. Shisui stood in the center of the clearing for a moment, as if waiting for me to come after him again, before turned and walking into the woods.

I crossed my ankles and grabbed them as I leaned over the stew pot simmering amidst the fire's embers. From the smell it was fish stew, of course. It was Kisame's week to cook, which was great even if it did feel like '101 ways to cook fish'. Had it been Shisui-senpai we'd be living off of hard rations and water for a week. At least with Kisame I got a hot meal, even if it was _fish._

"When is _she_ leaving?" I hissed under my breath.

Kisame shrugged and said nothing as he continued shaving off slices of green onion into the pot placed in the center of the low campfire, right where the embers were the hottest. At least I knew Kisame-senpai didn't like the Tamashi woman either; Shisui was civil to everyone until he suddenly _wasn't_ , so it was hard to tell what his opinion on her was.

As if even mentioning her got her attention, the Tamashi woman sauntered over to the campfire with a grimace on her face, "What the hell are you doing? This smells like you dumped a gallon of fish oil in the pot!" Kisame and I gave the Tamashi woman evil glares, Kisame for the insult of his cooking and me because she was insulting Kisame-senpai!

It might have been my imagination, and most definitely probably was, but I swore I saw Shisui's mouth twitch upwards a smidgen as he suddenly reappeared to add a few dry pieces of firewood to the pile behind Kisame. Before I could confirm my suspicion, he turned away and returned to where our spare had taken place moments ago, probably to stretch.

The older woman returned our glares with the flattest look she could muster and actually _shouldered_ Kisame-senpai out of the way, "Move. I'm cooking tonight." She ordered.

Kisame gave a scoff as if he didn't care, and he probably didn't since cooking wasn't his favorite chore, before going to spare with Shisui-senpai. Meanwhile I simply sat beside the Tamashi woman, gaping at her, wondering what kind of creature was she to be able to get away with ordering the Monster of the Hidden Mist and not end up being showered over the next five miles in itty bitty parts.

When Tamashi-san winked at me, I looked away with a scowl. I wasn't going to let her know that my respect for her went up just a tiny bit.

^o^

After working on this chapter on and off for a full month, I'm ready to quit. So here ya go! Crappy ramblings and endings galore! _I hope Tamashi turned out okay, FLPOLE01. But if she didn't, I'm sure you'll tell me quickly enough! XP This chapter was half written before I started dragging more details about her out of you._

Yes, Shisui's necklace happens to be the one that canon Itachi wore all the time. In my headcanon, the necklace was originally Shisui's and somehow Itachi got a hold of it (given to him by Shisui or taken after his death, details doesn't really matter), so since Shisui is alive, there's no reason that Itachi would have the necklace. The symbolism of the necklace is my own idea, but I think it really fits in with this Shisui's character, and Itachi's in canon.

I love Itachi and Team 7… BUT THEY'RE SO FREAKING HARD TO WRITE!

 _ **If you guess who Shisui's brother is/was, I'll give you a gold star! (*hint* It's kinda obvious! XP)**_

Anyway, I'm super tired and probably rambling (again) so good night! We'll probably get into mentions of canon next chapter, until then _ciao_!

 **Ages as of the end of this chapter: Team 7 (12), Nozomi (17), Itachi (18), Shisui (21), Tamashi (25), and Kisame (29)**

Flame Friendly!


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I never said I owned Naruto. Ever. In a million years.

 **Also, those of you who guessed the (obvious) answer to the 'question' I posed last chapter:** here's your gold star! Those of you who didn't guess correctly and/or didn't bother leaving a review (*pointed look*): it was Obito. TA-DA! _Not much of a surprise!_ lol

 **WARNING:** Mentions of violence and gore. Nothing too spectacular though. And lots of angst… again. I think you can assume that the angst isn't going away anytime soon. Too many emotionally stunted nitwits with their skewed moral compasses are runnin' around.

 **No I am not dead, I sent this chapter to my P.I.C. a few weeks ago and, dummy me, I thought that I had updated because of that. For those of you who follow my other stories and/or are upset because I haven't updated anything in a while, I'd like to take this time to say: _I have lost my writing muse completely._ I'm going through a few things in life and writing just isn't a priority anymore. Both my beta and P.I.C. recommended I take a break and I have been. Y'all are only getting this chapter because it's been stockpiled for ages (and I just forgot about it). This update does NOT guarantee that I'm going to start writing again anytime soon.**

 _Also, I can't remember if I responding to last chapter's reviews or not, so if I didn't and you did want a response, review this chapter and tell me so please!_

 **vvv**

 _Mirrored Images_

 _So Close_

 _Yet Furthest from Each Other_

 **vvv Bounty Office; Shimo no Kuni vvv**

 **vvv February 17; 9:43 am vvv**

 **vvv Nozomi vvv**

"Well, what about that one?" I asked, pointing at a scrap of paper pinned to a cork board stationed just outside the bounty office we were at. It detailed a typical assassination job: petty and very rich Big Person being threatened by a Nobody doing something for his Puny Village to rescue it from the Big Person's grasp. Take out the Nobody on route back to Puny Village. Much rewards and compensation blah blah blah.

I was more interested in the fact that I could rob the Big Person blind while Shisui-senpai and Kisame made little work of taking the shrimp out.

Shisui-senpai silently pointed to the small fine print running along the edge of the paper. Honestly, the Sharingan's ability to see everything to the smallest detail was both a lifesaver and a curse. It prevented us from getting into slightly stick situations because no one could ever know that the faint black squiggles along the paper's edges was actually words and not where the pen slipped. But on the other hand, I couldn't get away with _anything_ when Shisui-senpai's eyes went red.

I leaned in really close to read the stupidly small kanji, so close that my nose was practically brushing the parchment, and squinted:

 _'Target likely to be in company of hidden village shinobi'_

I pulled back with a pout. That job seemed like a fun one too, lots of opportunities to steal stuff; but Leader-sama had given very specific orders that the Akatsuki weren't to reveal themselves to the Hidden Villages so soon unless it was unavoidable. Disappointed I began scanning through the other mission notes pinned to the boards.

The cork boards were put up to display any bounties, wanted posters and missions that a missing nin might find interest in. They were normally avoided since every shinobi in the world knew what they meant, and therefore a place that hunter-nin circled in hopes to catch their prey. It was like a watering hole that the predators staked out in hopes for a lazy kill.

That said, most of the higher ranked nuke-nin, like the Akatsuki, generally didn't care if a hunter-nin was around or not. S-class didn't mean invincible, but it did mean being a pain in the ass to take down even if the odds seemed impossible.

There was the slight sound of ripping and I glanced to my right to see Kisame-senpai taking down another wanted poster. He already had quite a stack of them, enough to keep him occupied for a month at least. Kisame liked going after other nuke-nin instead of loyal ninja, he said they were more fun since one actually had to hunt for said nuke-nin rather than waiting around for the target to leave their village.

The Kiri nuke-nin laughed and held up the poster he was looking at, "Look, the nusume-osanai is famous!"

I perked up and snatched the paper from my secondary senpai. The wanted poster turned out to be a description of a navy haired girl in her late teens to early twenties, green eyes, roughly about five foot three and last seen wearing a green kimono–silk–with a darker green ivy embroidery along the hem and sleeves. Supposedly in the possession of a ruby necklace, various wallets, and a priceless heirloom that was a silver hairpin adorned with a large pearl. The bounty was a dismal thirty thousand ryo.

My mouth twisted into a sneer, "They only want her for thievery?" I knew better than to mention that the girl described was me where the hunter-nin circling the bounty office might overhear. I was disappointed that my first step into infamy was because of my _hobby_. I had poisoned the Hamaguchi family in a single night and there was no mention of that other than the navy haired girl was 'well-versed in herbs'. They made me sound like a thieving mediocre herbalist.

The poster was gently extracted from my hands as Shisui-senpai looked over it. His eyes flashed red briefly to memorize the contents before he pinned it back up on the cork bored. The money wasn't enough of a temptation for most bounty hunters to go after; only the most desperate or the newbies would try for it, but it was useless anyway. They would soon find that the girl disappeared like she never existed, which was closer to the truth than they would realize, and give up on the task.

Briefly I wondered if I should dye my hair navy again for a few more missions in hopes to gain more reputation.

"We've lingered too long." Shisui-senpai said quietly. Which wasn't true in the slightest, we had only been in the bounty office for little over fifteen minutes. The thing that very few people knew was that Shisui-senpai was as much of an impatient person as Sasori-san was; but instead of making a big fuss about it Shisui would just up and leave if he thought someone was taking too long. You wouldn't even know he was gone until you looked up and realized you were alone.

I whined, "But I haven't got my mission yet!"

Since my first successful solo mission Shisui-senpai had started letting me go off on more missions like that _if_ I promised to return by the set time. Not wanting to be 'grounded' so soon as I gained more freedom, I was very meticulous about the time. I wanted to prove to Shisui-senpai that I could be serious and I was very useful; but trying to gain that man's acknowledgment was about as easy as lighting a fire underwater. Difficult, but doable if you defied the laws of logic enough.

Shisui-senpai's eyes turned red again as he scanned over the mission notes. He pulled one down and handed it to me before manually turning me around and began steering me to the door. It was times like this that I wondered if my senpai was actually more impatient than Sasori. Sasori-san wouldn't physically drag me somewhere if I were taking forever.

Though, granted, Sasori-san would be more likely to impale me with his metal tail than anything.

It wasn't until we were out of sight of the bounty office and away from the chakra signatures of the hunter-nin that I looked at the mission Shisui-senpai chose for me. Having taught me almost everything I knew, I trusted Shisui to find a mission best suited to my skill set, but…

"Guard duty at a Yakuza meeting?!" Unless I was supposed to wipe out the gang then this mission was not in my specifics _at all_. "Come on, Shisui-senpai, isn't that a little-"

"The mission statement is a forgery. Find out why."

I blinked at my senpai for his abrupt interruption then down at the paper. Sasori-san had taught me how to identify forgeries but this one looked legitimate to me. Still that wasn't what was important, "And this is important because…?" I probed.

Shisui-senpai didn't respond and I wasn't expecting him to. The day that Shisui actually answered a question that he deemed stupid was the day that Kisame admitted he was a vegetarian and that Samehada was really a giant Popsicle that magically never melted.

I blew a few wispy hairs that managed to escape my hair clips out of my face. I guess I would find out what was so important about the mission slip being a fake when I completed the mission then.

"Alright, _fine._ I think I'll go with the brown hair this time. And I'll be needing my wakizashi back, Kisame-senpai, just in case."

The tall shark-man scoffed, "I told you, you don't get it back until you know how to handle it properly. _Throwing_ a blade is probably the most improper use unless it is made especially _for_ throwing." I swear, Kisame-senpai was as persnickety on swords as those crazy 'respect the trees, they're not a walkway' civilians I had the misfortune of running into last year.

"It was for a reason! Sasori-san gave me a good idea." I defended quickly.

"No. Stick to your tantō and poisons. Be glad I haven't taken away that puny knife of yours either."

While I glowered and grumbled under my breath and the inhumanity of it all, Shisui-senpai slowly turned his head to give his partner a raised eyebrow look. The tantō happened to be his _favorite_ weapon; and no one, not even someone as indifferent as Shisui, liked having their weapon of choice belittled.

It was funny how quick Kisame was to retract his comment about the 'puny knife'.

 **vvv Konohagakure; Hi no Kuni vvv**

 **vvv February 17; 12:34 pm vvv**

 **vvv Itachi vvv**

"You wished to see me, Kakashi-san?" Itachi asked as he jumped down from the rooftops overlooking the common market and fell instep with his former ANBU captain. Kakashi only glanced up from his book briefly to acknowledge Itachi's presence, not once faltering his pace. The Uchiha heir silently fell in step and waited patiently for Kakashi to speak. Itachi was used to this, ANBU Team Ro would often go for days without hearing a peep from their captain; and if he did speak it was rarely anything but orders.

The pair had almost made it to the other side of the market square before Kakashi spoke, "I see much potential in your brother." Itachi immediately knew this would be no normal conversation and one that would involve clan politics; for a brief moment he wished he had Shisui's master over the Body Flicker Jutsu, if only to get away from a topic he didn't want to talk about. Regardless, Itachi remained silent so his former captain could continue, "Normally an Uchiha is assigned as sensei to another Uchiha, unless there is little hope that the genin will possess the sharingan."

"You have the sharingan." Itachi pointed out, keeping his voice carefully neutral. Already he was plotting out what answers he could give without revealing anything too much.

Kakashi gave the teenager a flat look. As the genius of his generation, there were only a few things Itachi failed to excel at, but eloquently avoiding a topic was not one of them. Unfortunately, Kakashi was another genius of the same caliber and he knew exactly what Itachi was doing. Itachi's right cheek jumped at the look, he knew exactly what Kakashi was thinking and sighed under his breath. Why he even bothered to try and fool a fellow genius was beyond him.

"Forgive me, Kakashi-san, but Sasuke's predicament is a clan matter." Itachi explained. Actually it was ordered by the Hokage as the next step in bringing the Uchiha closer. Ever since the village had been founded and the practice of jounin teaching genin been established, Uchiha jounin have always taught Uchiha genin. There were very few cases that deviated from that tradition; but each of those Uchiha children had turned out to be better and didn't put the clan ahead of the village. Shisui had been one of them, as had his older brother Obito and their ancestor Kagami. The Hokage had hopes that Sasuke would turn out like them.

But Itachi had yet to tell the Hokage how the Uchiha reacted to Sasuke's team placement. Many of the Uchiha were starting to grumble again. There had been murmurings of how Konoha was trying to take the clan's children away. Just thinking about the complaints nearly sent Itachi into a panic, though he showed no outward sign of it. This was what the elders had feared, what Danzo had argued when Shisui first offered to put the clan under his Kotoamatsukami.

The Copy Ninja stared intently at his kohai with one dark eye. He knew Itachi better than most and he knew that the kid was worried about something. That alone was enough to make him worried himself. If Itachi was worried enough to actually show it, even if in miniscule amounts, then the issue must be very dire.

"Itachi…" Kakashi started and Itachi barely managed to keep from flinching.

Luckily he was saved by another person shouting his name. Both Kakashi and Itachi turned to see Naruto bolting towards them with Sakura hot on his tail, looking like a demon out for blood. Following at a more sedated pace was Sasuke, who seemed both mildly amused and annoyed at the same time.

When the blonde boy reached Itachi, he wrapped his arms around the older teenager's waist and used his momentum to swing around Itachi so that he might hide behind the older male. Kakashi and Itachi exchanged knowing looks before Kakashi gave him an eye-smile and shunshined away with a puff of smoke, abandoning his kohai to his students. Itachi refrained from rolling his eyes, he wasn't at all surprised that Kakashi would skip out when there was a tussle between his students. Not with Itachi around to play the mediator.

Sakura skidded to a halt just a few feet from Itachi, scowling at Naruto. " _Narutoooooo_! Stop hiding behind Itachi-san like a coward!"

"I'm not a coward! I'm just, uh… using my environment to my advantage!" Naruto called from behind Itachi's back, not even daring to look at his kunoichi teammate. The older teen wasn't sure if he should be proud that Naruto had been paying attention to him or disappointed that he was using the lessons as an excuse to use Itachi as a shield.

Itachi glanced at his younger brother for an explanation, but the boy was now glaring at Naruto along with Sakura, for an entirely different reason. For a moment Itachi was almost tempted to take a page out of his former captain's book and shunshin away to avoid the confrontation, but he didn't.

Only Kami knows why Itachi even bothered to keep these kids from killing each other. Even he was getting to the point of just locking them all in a small closet and not letting them out until they worked out their differences.

 **vvv Location Unknown vvv**

 **vvv February 19; 8:32 pm vvv**

 **vvv Nozomi vvv**

I scrubbed vigorously at my hair and tried not to retch as the brown dye washed out as a reddish hue. Blood was still coming off me and this was the third time I had showered. I had seen many things in the four years I had traveled with Shisui-senpai and Kisame, but the massacre at the yakuza meeting was easily one of the most horrendous events I had ever survived. And the only reason why I _wasn't_ slaughtered with the rest of them was because of my evasion skills.

Had I been the one killing I wouldn't have a problem because I would have been in _control_. I had learned to repress the memories of those terrified eyes as I cut someone down and that horrible death rattle and the screaming, oh Kami, the _screaming._ But when I wasn't the one holding the _red coated_ blade, I felt helpless. I couldn't control anything. I was another variable in the equation. Another potential victim.

I pressed a pink tinged hand to my mouth as I slid to the shower floor; water ceaselessly hammered down on my shoulders. I couldn't cry out. I couldn't. Kisame-senpai would disapprove. Shisui-senpai would see that as a weakness. I wasn't _weak_.

 _I wasn't_.

I was _useful_. I was _helpful_. I worked for a _good cause_. I served Shisui-senpai with a single minded determination. I had made my first kill– _ashen face, pathetic sobbing, and w_ _as_ _he really_ _only_ _a few years older than me?_ – when I was fourteen. I had strangled a bride on her wedding night the week after that. I remember smiling coldly as I watched someone's mansion burn to the ground with them in it. I had disemboweled someone while they were still alive and strong enough to _squeal_ like a pig. I demolished the Hamaguchi family and their servants just _last month_. And I did all of it and more because it was my _job_. I had four years of being a practiced assassin. I was _not_ weak.

So why did the yakuza massacre bother me so much?

I hung my head, defeated, and wet clumps of silver, brown, and _red red red_ hair fell forward. I made a desperate noise in the back of my throat as I hurriedly swatted my hair back over my shoulder. I couldn't look at it. Those washed out colors of brown and red made me sick to my stomach. I had always thought my hair was my best asset; but at that moment I was seriously considering taking the closest sharpest object and hacking off any discolored lock.

 _That girl was younger than me_.

Shut up.

 _She was prettier too. Beautiful even. So much better than me._

I said shut up.

 _So pretty… so cold._

Stop it!

 _The man she was with… now there's a monster. Demonic._

I pressed the heels of my hands against my forehead. I couldn't take much more. …stop, please…

 _Hack. Slash. A fountain of blood. Splish splash. Giggle._

I couldn't stop the first sob. Even as I bit down onto my first knuckle– _faint taste of blood, do not gag_ – the rest soon followed. No no n _o no_ _nonononono!_ I can't cry! I'm not a lost little girl who clung to her naivety, still believing that she could survive.

'Koinu' they had called me. An optimistic puppy. _What was a little fire and a dead family?_ They said. Nothing. It was nothing. _People die every day, get used to it and just forget it_. They said. I did, I had killed a few of those people myself. Sometimes I _enjoyed_ it. I was a far cry from the girl who saw all life as precious and should always be spared.

I wrapped my arms around my legs and drew them flush against my chest. As I sat there under the hot downpour of the shower, shivering, I wondered how far I had come from the thirteen year old orphan in Yūgakure. I was terrified of the monster I had become; was it even possible for someone to change so much in four years? And if that was the case how different would I be four years from now? Would I even be able to recognize myself?

Whimpering I tightened my hold and buried my face against my knees.

 **vvv Shisui vvv**

The muffled sobbing coming from the bathroom was not lost on Shisui's ears. Nozomi had been in a daze when she finally came back from the mission. He and Kisame didn't even react to the blood drenched teen, not in the way a normal human with a moral conscious would act. Nor did she say anything, other than a detached verbal report of a failed mission before she disappeared into the bathroom.

Shisui tuned out the sound and returned to meticulously sharpening his 'puny knife'. His tantō was a special memento, taken from the first man he ever killed. Shisui had been ten at the time, a genin just passing his first full year of service. It had been an honorable death, quick and painless to the victim. He didn't even see the blow coming, a crack of the neck and he was gone this world forever.

Shisui however… he felt that death as if it were his own and in a way it was. The man had died and took Shisui's innocence with him. So Shisui took something of his, the tantō, in recompense. Since that time every slash of the small blade, every spray of blood, was in tribute to Shisui's first kill. A tribute to all the lives he had taken since.

The Uchiha paused in his work, his dark gaze fixed on a spot on the floor just beyond his knee. He had been raised in this kind of world; he grew up in a shinobi village, played with clan children, learned the twelve basic hand seals right along with his first set of kanji. Everything he did and learned as a child was geared towards being a shinobi. He had been one of the 'luckier' ones, able to balance his childhood with his growth as a killer perfectly and became a well rounded individual because of it.

Or so he thought.

Shisui's brow puckered in thought. Where had he gone wrong? There had once been a time when he would have jumped forward to comfort someone in distress, especially a young girl like Nozomi. Now he didn't feel the urge to see if she was okay, he couldn't even say that he cared. She was another pawn in this stupid game, a means to an end.

Some part in the back of his mind growled. The tattered remnants of his old conscious no doubt. _She is a seventeen year old girl._

A seventeen year old who had more blood on her hands than most tokubetsu jounin. He reasoned with himself. Nozomi wasn't so innocent, she had never been for as long as he had known her. But that was the problem wasn't it?

 _You told her to do it. You trained her for it._

Nozomi made her own choice.

 _Against what? Go with you or die in the gutter as a common pickpocket? A lesser of evil._

Wrong. She chose the greatest evil.

 _And how could she know? A child raised in a den of thieves? Taken from that hellhole to be dragged across the continent with two wanted criminals? When could she have a lessons in morals?_

When indeed? Shisui had thought upon the issue many times, wondering how he could have possibly ever been at peace in the gentle town of Konoha– where orphans had soft beds every night and pickpockets were only mildly punished– when there were girls just like Nozomi out in the world. Girls so lost that they didn't know right from wrong, that they didn't know there _was_ such a thing as right and wrong. Life was just a pointless series of unfortunate events to them. They would do whatever it takes to survive that, even if that meant traveling with two internationally known criminals.

But that wasn't the real issue.

A shadow blocked Shisui's light and he looked up to see his partner looming down over him. "You sick, twisted son of a bitch." Kisame spat, sharp dagger-like teeth bared to their full extent. "You fucking sent her there on purpose."

"Hn." Shisui grunted and sheathed his tantō with a sound snap and laid it aside. There was nothing Kisame wouldn't say that he didn't already agree with. Instead Shisui folded his arms and closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable reprimand.

His lack of remorse seemed to enrage Kisame even more. The Kiri nuke-nin grabbed Shisui by the collar of his cloak and pulled the younger man to his feet so that their faces were mere inches apart. "She could have died and you're not even sorry."

Shisui gave him a painfully indifferent look, "Then she would have been a failure. I did not send her there without first being positive she had a good chance of survival."

The muscles on Kisame's neck stood out as he grit his pointed teeth, "When are you going to see that girl as a human and not some tool you can willingly throw into a massacre whenever you feel like it?!"

"Funny, coming from the former Kiri-nin."

" _Exactly_." Kisame snarled, "It's a dark day when a Kiri nuke-nin has more humanity than someone from _Konoha_." He pushed Shisui away, as if he couldn't bare holding onto such trash any longer. Shisui didn't exactly blame him for being revolted. The feeling was nothing new to the Uchiha, he felt it every time he looked in the mirror.

Calmly Shisui smoothed the wrinkles in his cloak caused by Kisame's fists, "If she cannot be of use-"

Kisame cut him off, "Oh don't give me that bullshit, you can feed it to Nozomi and the rest of the Akatsuki but I know you care about her. Which is exactly why I don't understand what you were thinking! You knew Momochi would be there!"

Well, Shisui couldn't really argue. That had been his intention, to send the poor teen into that bloodbath without warning. He had known that Momochi Zabuza was on the hunt after that particular band of Yakuza; Sasori-san had recently been informed of the former Swordsman's movements. Shisui had sent Nozomi there because she needed to learn what true malice was. He was confident in her instincts and self preservation to know that she would survive without any lasting injures. He had trained her himself after all; and he didn't train _failures._

But to someone with a semblance of a moral conscious, doing so would be wrong.

"Was this another fucking test from Leader-sama? It had _better_ be." Kisame continued, nearly spitting in his blind fury.

Shisui said nothing, he only closed his eyes again with a small noncommittal grunt. Though it was tempting to lie and save face, Shisui was no stranger to being a monster, he had had five years of practice after all. He did everything himself, there was no obscure order from Leader-sama, no hidden test. Shisui had sent Nozomi into that massacre for one reason and one reason only.

 _A lesson in morals indeed._

^o^

I was going to continued this further, but no matter what I do I keep hitting a brick wall so I'm just gonna stop it here and move on to the next chapter. This is a good ending spot anyway, so I don't feel too bad about it. Soooooo, yeah… in this chapter we learn that Nozomi and Shisui are every flavor of insane and sadistic, respectively. I mean, yikes, I was planning that for Nozomi anyway, but even I didn't see Shisui being a coldhearted jackass. Kisame no likey. And the Uchiha clan are still causing trouble and Itachi might start hyperventilating any moment if _One More Thing Goes Wrong._ Not that I blame him or anything…

I know I said I'd mention canon but I didn't… _next chapter, promise!_

 **Ages as of the end of this chapter: Team 7 (12), Nozomi (17), Itachi (18), Shisui (21), Kakashi (26), and Kisame (29)**

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	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Still don't own Naruto.

I don't know if it's just me or if I'm just starting to lose interest in writing all together or if it's just a really _really_ bad case of Writer's Block, but I just don't have the motivation to write anymore. Oh I still want to, there's nothing I enjoy more. But as soon as I even look at a word document I just… lose it all. I get distracted and before I know it, I'm getting ready for bed. Talk about _annoying_.

Anyway, we _finally_ hit some canon! Well… actually we finally hit some messed up canon. *cackle*

I normally do these fan theories on Sensei, but this one kinda pertains to the storyline at the moment, so here goes: why is it that Sasuke succumb to the Killer Intent of Zabuza and Kakashi during the Land of Waves thing? I mean, he's the sole survivor of the Uchiha Massacre, for heaven's sake! I very much doubt that Itachi wouldn't have unleashed KI when he confronted Sasuke that night. If he's playing the bad guy he would have gone all out (and he did, _very_ successfully I might add). In fact, now that I think about it, I'm certain that Sasuke did experience Itachi's KI (in all flashbacks he freezes up at least once). Why isn't Sakura the one pissing her pants? I mean, she's the one with the least experience dealing with deadly ninja and their KI (i.e. Sasuke = Itachi, and Naruto = Kurama). Okay granted maybe Sasuke was more susceptible to KI because of Itachi hitting him with it, but if that's the case why doesn't Naruto have the same problem, having Kurama throwing a big fit in his belly every two seconds?

Also: can we all appreciate that Obito was actually mentioned by name in episode 81? Oh the feels, I'm drowning in them!

 **vvv**

 _I am but a Shattered Mirror_

 _Shards reflect every face_

 _But which is me?_

 _And which is the Mask that I wear?_

 **vvv Konohagakure, Hi no Kuni vvv**

 **vvv March 1; 2:00 pm vvv**

 **vvv Kakashi vvv**

When the Sandaime began assigning genin teams to him, Kakashi never imagined he would eventually end up with the trio of kids he had. Of course, Naruto was almost a dead given, since he was the son of Kakashi's sensei, but Uchiha Sasuke had been more of a hit and miss. There were plenty of Uchiha running around to be his sensei, most of whom were much more efficient with their Sharingan than Kakashi was. And if that wasn't harsh enough, the two brats were almost the embodiment of how Kakashi and Obito acted ( _Obito you should have been_ _their sensei. My fault my fault my fault_ ).

The civilian girl, Sakura, completed the ensemble of Team Idiot. She was the typical young girl, more worried about her hair and the cutest boy in class than honing her ninja skills. Kakashi found it hard to even _refer_ to her as a kunoichi. When Kakashi had been in the Academy, for the short time that it was, the girls hadn't been so… ditzy; but then his generation had lived through the worst Shinobi War in history. Girls his age had many more things to focus on than crushes, like not getting killed.

Compared to the other rookie genin, Team 7 left much to be desired. They didn't have an ingrained sense of teamwork the way Team 10 did, nor were they compatible with their other teammates like Team 8. Kakashi's team was full of hot heads and egos as large as the Hokage Mountain.

It was by the saving grace of Itachi-kun that Team 7 didn't dissolve into chaos.

Kakashi had liked his former subordinate well enough when they were both in ANBU, but now he was almost ready to worship at the teen's feet. Kakashi didn't have Itachi's saintlike patience to deal with two colliding forces of nature; too often did Kakashi have to refrain from retaliating like he would to get an unruly ANBU subordinated under control. Most of which included physical and mental harm.

Itachi-kun, however, deflected the tension as easily as waving a hand through the air. The teen had an almost innate ability to distract all the genin before anything could get out of hand; probably a gift he learned being the clan heir of a powerful, and once mistrusted, clan. Kakashi was almost going to miss Itachi for the month long C-rank mission Naruto managed to swindle out of the Hokage.

"A C-rank? Do you think they're ready?" Asuma asked when Kakashi told his fellow jounin comrades the news.

The last Hatake hummed distractedly. Asking if the team was ready wasn't really a question he could answer. He would say 'yes' they were ready for higher ranked missions if he were to base his assumptions off of power and abilities. Team 7 had two very powerful jounin to train them, even if one of whom wasn't as attentive to their training as the other, so they were naturally more advanced in their career than the other genin their age.

On the other hand, Team 7's mentality was no where near ready to handle the confines of a C-rank mission that had a high chance of casualties should bandits attack. It was one thing to kill a cute little rabbit in a controlled environment; but it was quite another to take a person's life, no matter the reason of _why_.

Kurenai quirked an eyebrow at Kakashi's non-answer, "That doesn't inspire confidence." She commented.

Of all the jounin sensei, Kurenai was the one who came away from the last war relatively unscathed and was still relatively normal comparatively. Sure she had a few awful memories and had witnessed many deaths of comrades, but not on the level of the rest of her age-mates. Especially not Hatake, who had not only lost both his teammates in horrific ways within six months of each other, but also lost his beloved sensei within a year after the War's official end. Topped with ANBU level repression for ten years, it was a miracle that Kakashi was still _sane._

Kakashi glanced at the sole living ( _oh Kami,_ why _Rin!?_ ) kunoichi he considered a friend. "It doesn't really matter. The Hokage gave us this mission, whether they're prepared or not is no longer an issue." But, oh, _was_ it an issue. Kakashi had to refrain from cursing the Hokage for giving his team this mission. It was an easy one that was for sure, but Kakashi already had a feeling that any mission given to Unlucky Seven would end in disaster. They already had a reputation of being disastrous when it came to D-ranks.

Before Kurenai could respond, the silver haired man unceremoniously poofed away without saying good-bye; but then, when someone had the track record that he did there was bound to be some bizarre habits. Like flash stepping away in the middle of a conversation because 'oops I'm already an hour late than my _real_ designated arrival time. Which means I'm now five hours late, silly me'.

"Yeaaaaaaaaaaah! I'm ready!" The overly obnoxious blonde ( _Minato, Kushina, I'm sorry,_ _it's my fault_ ) shouted the second, the very _second_ he stepped out from under the village gate. Everyone withing hearing range stopped to stare at the kid, save his team who were far too used to his antics now. Naruto didn't look the least bit sorry, instead he was jumping from place to place and laughing like a complete lunatic.

The man Team 7 was escorting for the mission glared back at Kakashi, "And I'm supposed to trust my life with _th_ _at_ _?_ " Tazuna grouched. Naruto stopped what he was doing and turned to glare at the client, looking as if he were about to attack the old man… again.

Kakashi closed his eyes in a way that made it seem like he was smiling and mocking at the same time, "Yes." He said with extra cheerfulness, just to be annoying. He casually reached out to grab Naruto's jumper just as he tried to charge Tazuna, screaming childish threats and curses.

As hyperactive and immature as Naruto ( _Obito_ ) was, he had been trained for almost two months by two high level jounin. Many of his fellow age-mates were still learning tree walking whereas Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke were already learning how to water-walk; and mostly failing at it, but that was beside the point.

Tazuna seemed to be reconsidering whether or not hiring Team 7 was worth it, but he had no choice. According to Shinobi Rule Five: once a mission was chosen for a team they must complete it unless the mission parameters exceeded the abilities of the team.

 **vvv Amegakure vvv**

 **vvv March 1; 5:52 pm vvv**

 **vvv Nozomi vvv**

I groaned and fell flat on the bed in the hotel room that Shisui and Kisame had abandoned me in before they disappeared. This was so _boring!_ With Tamashi-san around I couldn't sneak out and go collecting like I wanted to. It wasn't fair, I hadn't have any new pretty things for _two weeks_ and all my kimono's were starting to get dirty and worn. I'd have to find new ones again soon.

Tamashi-san pinned me with a look that said she didn't approve of my moping about. I shot her a very distinct universal hand sign that I learned from Kisame-senpai. I didn't care if it got me killed, I was bored and it was _her_ fault. Shisui-senpai had thought I was getting a little carried away with my thieving and thus set Tamashi loose on me, probably under the false assumption that another female would straighten me up.

What Shisui-senpai didn't realize was that Tamashi-san was more uncouth than I was. I at least had court training, courtesy of Sasori-san, but I just chose to ignore it. Tamashi-san, however, was a regular tomboy. The only thing that really worked in Shisui's favor was that Tamashi thought thievery was crude and vulgar. She had actually confiscated the small bag of coin I had managed to lift, saying it wasn't proper.

As if _she_ knew anything about propriety!

When I rolled over on my back with a louder groan, Tamashi finally got fed up, "Will you be quiet?!" She snapped.

I scoffed and propped myself up on my elbows, "Why? So you can polish your precious stick in silence?"

The older woman narrowed her eyes dangerously, but I had seen far worse. Tamashi had _nothing_ on Kakuzu-san's glares. No one did. I scoffed again and fell back, "Don't see why you're still here," I commented "You already reported in weeks ago, shouldn't you be doing another job now?"

"Akatsuki-san hasn't given me another job yet. I'm stuck here with you."

Well it was nice to see the dislike was mutual.

"Just go to the nearest bounty office and pick the mission you like best." I snapped. I wanted her _gone_ now. She was messing with my perfect life! I liked having my senpai to myself and being able to steal when they weren't around. Tamashi was only adding to the tension that seemed to be swimming above all our heads for the past weeks.

It had been two weeks since the failed mission at the yakuza meeting and both Kisame and Shisui had been a little more testy with each other. Most people wouldn't even notice it, but after spending four years constantly around them I knew something was up. The general peace was gone. And I blamed it all on Tamashi, she had come only a few days after that so it had to be her fault. There wasn't any other 'big' event that changed.

Tamashi-san growled, bringing my attention back to her "Obviously you don't play by the spy rules. Hoshigaki and Uchiha are my new handlers, I can't do anything unless they say so."

That must suck. In the beginning of my training, Shisui-senpai would choose my jobs for me, so I wouldn't get overzealous and choose a high level job that would only get me killed. After I pulled off my first group assassination successfully, Shisui-senpai started letting me pick my own jobs so long as he approved first. I had figured that Tamashi, being a solo assassin, wouldn't need permission. But it turned out she was even more restricted than I was.

I sat up and turned so that I was sitting fulling on the bed, my legs folded beneath me, and facing her. "Wow, your jobs must be boring. What do you do, go in and just kill the Targets? Don't you have any fun with them?"

The woman moved so fast that I never saw her. One moment Tamashi was staring at me with something akin to horror and the next thing I knew was I had my arms over my head to protect myself from more hits while Tamashi towered over me, "Death isn't a joke, you brat!" She shouted.

I grimaced and reached up to massage the back of my head "I never said it was. I'm talking about all the creative ways you can kill someone. Don't you do that or do you just cut their throat in the dark? That's boring!"

Tamashi hit me again, "I'm not a sadist! Honestly what do those sadists teach you?"

"How to kill." I responded plainly with a shrug. It wasn't like they hid it or anything. "And I resent that, my senpai aren't _sadists_." If she thought Kisame and Shisui-senpai were sadists she had obviously never Sasori. Or Leader-sama. Or Kakuzu. Or even that blonde brat, Dei-Dei. Honestly my senpai were the most rational of the whole Akatsuki organization.

"That's what you think. Anyone who teaches a young girl how to kill is a sadist and inhumane." There was a pause and then another smack upside my head as if it was added on as an afterthought.

I shot her a sullen look, that woman hit _hard._ "You have no right to get all preachy about what Shisui-senpai and Kisame-senpai teach me when you go around killing people they tell you to." I snapped.

"My reasons are my own, brat. I don't have to explain myself to a blind follower." Tamashi dismissed before returning to her own bed across the room. She didn't look at me again.

I moved my lips to mimic her mockingly and rolled my eyes. Crossing my arms I put my back to her and scowled at the wall. I wasn't a blind follower! Shisui and Kisame were the people who took care of me. They raised me! They took me out of Yūgakure, a dump that I would have died in, and gave me a reason to live. And maybe it wasn't a good reason, but my life had meaning to it instead of just surviving in the slums of a tourist trap.

No self righteous _assassin_ could tell me I was wrong in my choices!

 **vvv Akatsuki Headquarters; Amegakure vvv**

 **vvv March 1; 6:02 pm vvv**

 **vvv Shisui vvv**

It was rare for Akatsuki members to meet in person, with good reason. The increasingly short lifespans of Kakuzu's many partners was enough to testify to that. The Akatsuki was a group of high level, unstable shinobi from different villages, some of which having been former enemies. It was only the thin veneer of a common goal that kept everyone from killing each other.

But even that sometimes wasn't enough.

As an Uchiha, even one as unconventional as he, Shisui had a tight hold over his emotions. He just readily showed it more than his clansmen… or well he _did_ before he locked it all away. Shisui wasn't someone who normally lashed out violently. The incident with Orochimaru had so far been the only instance of him ever losing his temper; but the fact of the matter was that he was close to losing it again.

Not that he showed it, of course. To anyone who wasn't Kisame or Nozomi, Shisui looked exactly like he always did, stoic and unfeeling; but every so often his right index finger would twitch as he suppressed the urge to incinerate something. So far he had three people to choose from when he finally snapped: a very annoying blonde haired brat, a partner who snarled every time Shisui so much as _looked_ at him, and a person Shisui would only go after if he was feeling suicidal.

The Leader of the Akatsuki.

Shisui shut his eyes and inhaled deeply, "You wish for her to go undercover? For how long?" He addressed the man when he felt his temper was under enough control.

The Leader's gleaming Rinnegan was the only thing visible from the shadows that always hung over that particular corner of the room, a genjutsu for sure. "Until she attains significant information that will be useful to us."

That didn't bode well. While Nozomi was an excellent spy, she lacked the patience of a long term assignment. Her skill relied more on quick assassinations that required little infiltration other than to get into position for the kill. Any information gathering she did was after she completed the job, when she had no one to stop her. And then there was the little problem of her kleptomania that would no doubt get her into trouble within days, if not hours, of her starting the assignment.

"If I am not mistaken, does Sasori-san have a spy already planted?" Shisui questioned with careful disinterest.

Surprisingly it was Sasori who answered, he so rarely spoke at meetings without direct prompting, "I suspect my plant has forgotten where his loyalties lie. His recent reports are… _lacking_." Shisui wasn't the only one to raise an eyebrow at that. Sasori's spies within the villages were often sleeper cells, to have one change loyalties without even knowing they had different loyalties to begin with was… worrisome.

"It is settled." Pein's voice drifted from the dark corner before Shisui could speak again, "Have your spy ready to leave within three months."

At the clear dismissal the rest of the Akatsuki filed out of the room, none of them saying a word. Shisui paid no mind to where he was going, instead he just blindly followed the hulking figure of his partner in front of him as he thought about the situation.

The Akatsuki leader knew that Nozomi wasn't a long term spy; she was barely a spy at all really, she was an _assassin_ who dabbled in espionage. So why was it so important that Nozomi be the one sent on the assignment? Sasori had plenty of wandering spies who could investigate the issue with his defunct plant; he was the spymaster after all. Nozomi was nothing more than Shisui's personal subordinate. She might work for the Akatsuki but she took her direct orders from Shisui.

Unless that was the problem. Shisui paused with a frown. He knew Nozomi would follow his orders before she followed the Akatsuki. And if one of his orders went against the orders of the Akatsuki… Shisui's mouth thinned. It was a well known fact for years that Nozomi was so loyal to Shisui she was almost to the point of being a fanatic; but it had never been a problem before. If the Leader was only now starting to address this issue then it meant two things, and neither of them were good.

With a small curse Shisui started walking again, storming after his partner with a dark expression. If the Leader was testing Nozomi's loyalty then obviously Pein didn't trust Shisui as much as he originally thought. That was problematic in itself and set Shisui further back; but topped with the fact that the Akatsuki were going to start their push for power soon was enough to nearly give Shisui a heart attack and panic attack in the same go. He wasn't nearly as ready to sabotage the Akatsuki as he planned. Nozomi wasn't ready, she was still too useless and weak; and Kisame wasn't on his side yet. Shisui hadn't even sent all the information he had collected to Konoha yet!

As Shisui finally caught up to his partner he scrambled to throw together a new plan. Sabotage was out, and he was now limited on the things he could send to Konoha, in case he was being watched like he suspected.

Dammit he needed more time!

 **vvv En route to Nami no Kuni vvv**

 **vvv March 13; 12:12 pm vvv**

 **vvv Kakashi vvv**

It was a mess. An absolute chaotic mess.

But just the same, Kakashi couldn't help but feel proud of his team. When the Demon Brothers had attacked, none of them remained frozen for very long. Not even Sakura, who had the least mental training for a shinobi career, hesitated when Kakashi's genjutsu activated. All three genin had followed attack pattern beta the moment Kakashi 'died' and managed to hold up their own pretty well. Only Naruto had been wounded in the fight, a small glancing blow to the collarbone from one of the chains. Of course the poison had put him out of commission for the rest of the trip, but not before he managed to convince everyone else to continue the mission. The knucklehead had even tried to bleed the poison out by making the wound deeper, but Kakashi had stopped him before he could. Wounds to the collarbone like Naruto's were difficult enough to heal on its own and could easily turn fatal if the kunai slipped in the wrong direction, Kakashi didn't want to risk it.

Now, unfortunately, there were only two able-bodied genin to guard Tazuna; and both Sakura and Sasuke were scared stiff from the killer intent Zabuza was emitting. And though Naruto was soldiering through like a good shinobi should, he was sweating bullets and shaking so badly that he barely was able to hold his kunai straight; but it was more than Kakashi could hope for a team of rookies _(_ _better than my own team. I'm sorry everyone, it was my fault)_.

Kakashi needed to end the fight with Momochi quickly, so he could get his team to safety and let the poor blonde rest. Even if the Kyuubi was working in tandem with them at the moment, Kakashi wouldn't put it past the sly old Fox to try and find a way out while Naruto was weak. It had happened before _(Kushina… I'm sorry, so very sorry. I failed you)._ Kakashi only prayed to every Kami, known and unknown, that Minato-sensei's seal was better equipped to hold the Kyuubi back than the seal used on Kushina.

Momochi disappeared with his signature jutsu, bringing Kakashi's attention back to the present. In the back of his mind he cursed himself for being distracted. Momochi might not have been on his level of power, but he was an assassin on the highest caliber and Kakashi had four vulnerable companions to protect. Even his Sharingan _(Obito… I'm sorry I couldn't save you)_ wasn't much help in a fight like this.

However…

Despite the danger his team was in, Kakashi couldn't help but smirk. He was the last of the Hatake clan, once rivals to the Inuzuka clan in terms of tracking. His inherited strong sense of smell, paired with the clan's summoning contract, gave Kakashi an advantage where sight was no longer useful. He unlatched the middle scroll pocket on the left vest pocket of his flak jacket, catching the small summoning scroll as it slipped out. Pushing the scroll into his shirtsleeve, Kakashi decided it might be time to reassure his team before one of them injured themselves.

"Sasuke, Sakura!" Both the genin startled at their names being called. Kakashi didn't look back at them, but continued to scan the mist for the briefest of movements, "Calm down, I'll protect you with my life. I will not allow my comrades to die." Kakashi looked over his shoulder at the three kids, seeing the faces of his own genin team in them. His closed eyes curving to give the impression that he was smiling, _(never again will anyone die on my watch, never again, never never never!)_ "Trust me." He finished saying, at the same time that his hands finished folding into the customary seal for the water clone technique. With a quick flash of his sharingan as his eyes reopened, the four of the water clones disappeared under a genjutsu and dispersed into the surrounding area, while the fifth took his place. Kakashi shunshined into the trees and waited.

Like clockwork, Momochi made a snarky comment and appeared right in the middle of Team 7's formation. The water clone burst into action and darted towards Momochi, burying a kunai in the nuke-nin's gut all the way to the hilt. Just like he had anticipated, water gushed out of the wound instead of blood. Kakashi knew that as a shinobi from Kiri, Zabuza would spam out water clones like they were candy, which was why Kakashi had made more than the one needed clone. When battling A-Ranked ninja it was better to overproduce clones than be dead.

Naruto gasped and pointed at the figure now emerging from the mist, his body twisted in preparation to swing that overcompensating sword of his. The water clone turned to keep Zabuza within the sight of his sharingan. Seeing the low level of chakra, the water clone knew it was another clone just before the gigantic sword swung around and severed him in two.

With the new information from his dispersed water clone, Kakashi sent in a second clone instead of going down himself. The two clones played it up a bit, tossing banter back and forth and taking the time to explain themselves for the kids to follow along, until the real Zabuza, his chakra levels were too large to be anything but the true Zabuza, snuck up behind Kakashi's second water clone.

Momochi's water clone popped while the real Zabuza took a swing at Kakashi's clone, much like the first time. Luckily the clone ducked, prolonging the ruse that he was the real Kakashi. The giant sword dug into the ground a good foot, just below the first opening in the metal. Momochi rearranged his grip on the sword and used it for leverage to kick Kakashi's clone.

But before Momochi could land the strike, the clone rolled to the side, avoiding Momochi's leg and leapt into the air. He tossed out Makibishi spikes as he somersaulted through the air and landed safely on the water. Zabuza shot after the him, leaping fluidly over the spikes and landed just feet away from the water clone. "You anticipated my moves, clever… But not clever enough! Suiton: Mizurappa!" Zabuza spat out a large amount of water point blank at the clone, who was forced underwater by the pure force of the jutsu.

Unbeknownst to everyone else, the second clone dispersed and another took it's place, to keep up with the appearance that Momochi was still fighting the real Kakashi. While Zabuza had been playing with water, the actual Kakashi had been setting up an elaborate trap to lure Zabuza into later. If there was one good thing about having his silent and creepy Uchiha kohai around, it was that he knew how to plan ten steps ahead instead of only two. Memories from the drowned water clone, as impossible as it sounded, came back to him and Kakashi turned his attention to the battle.

Apparently while he was busy with the highly volatile Uchiha-grade ninja-wire, stolen from Itachi when the heir wasn't paying attention, his third water clone had gotten himself caught in a water prison. Kakashi hummed quietly to himself as he inspected the scene laid out below him and wondered what his next course of action should be. He still had two water clones left, but he would like to keep them back for as long as possible, preferring only to use them when the next clone popped. That left only two more options, leap out himself and ruin the whole charade, or use his summonings to attack, which was useless anyway since dogs couldn't channel chakra to walk on water.

Although…

Kakashi glanced at his pilfered ninja-wire, thinking back on its previous owner. His kohai had some very interesting tricks, one of which was a technique he had recently developed that caused shadow clones to explode. And while the technique had never been used with any other type of corporal clone, it was an interesting thought. Kakashi wouldn't dare attempt to make water clone number three explode now of course, too many risks, but it was worth mentioning to Itachi when his team returned to Konoha.

After that brief distraction, Kakashi decided the best course of action was to send his extra clones in, especially since his cute little genin were trying to attack a Zabuza water clone that had been formed while he was thinking _(stop doing that! You're going to get more people killed!)._

Multiple voices exclaimed their surprise as two Kakashis shot out of the treeline, one heading for the water clone Momochi, and the other heading for the real one. With the help of Naruto and Sasuke, in a brilliant show of teamwork, the first– or rather the fourth– water clone took out Zabuza's clone with relative ease and took a defensive stance over the resulting puddle, ready to protect the genin and Tazuna. Meanwhile the fifth clone had managed to force Zabuza away from the water prison, thus releasing the third clone, and they were now working together to bring down Zabuza. Unfortunately they were failing.

Kakashi rolled his eyes when one clone full on tackled Zabuza around his waist and popped when the nuke-nin stabbed him in the back. The last clone lasted roughly five minutes after that before he was decapitated rather harshly. Kakashi had a feeling Momochi was starting to lose his patience, if his harsh breathing and wide feral eyes were anything to go by.

Zabuza locked eyes with the last remaining clone and stalked towards it, "Damn you, Kakashi! You've been copying my jutsu and using it like it was your own. I see why they call you the Copy-cat Ninja! You're only copying me, like a monkey. You can't beat me with cheap tricks!" He ranted, looking more and more crazed with every step he took.

Kakashi glanced at the ninja-wire wrapped around the tree he was in. It seemed that he wouldn't have to use the trap after all. How disappointing, he was looking forward to seeing how much better Uchiha ninja-wire was than standard.

The Kakashi clone raised a kunai to chest level, "Considering that I used more clones than you, I don't see how that is copying." He quipped, closing his eyes in a smile.

With a roar, Zabuza charged the clone, his sword back and aimed to cleave the clone in two. All the genin yelled to their sensei to watch out and Tazuna turned his head away, unable to watch. The real Kakashi tensed, ready to finally reveal himself as soon as the clone popped.

And then Zabuza went down like a sack of dirt, two senbon needles sticking out of his neck.

There was a moment of stillness where everyone tried to absorb what the hell had just happened, before Naruto and Sakura started gushing how cool and awesome the clone was for taking out Zabuza without even twitching, even Sasuke looked impressed. The real Kakashi wasted no time in leaping down to the ground next to Zabuza, causing the cheering to turn into confusion. Kakashi knelt down to check Momochi's pulse and found it gone.

His eyes flicked up, following the trajectory of the senbon his sharingan had picked up, to a branch across the clearing where a young teen stood, wearing a mask of a Kiri hunter nin. He narrowed his eyes, silently waiting answers. The teen spoke up, startling everyone else, and bowed his head in thanks. "I thank you, shinobi-san, I had been tracking Momochi Zabuza for a while now, waiting for the opportunity to take him out." The teen, a boy by the slight masculinity of his soft voice, murmured.

Kakashi was suspicious of the boy. Having known so many child prodigies in his line of work, and being one himself, he knew that it wasn't so unbelievable that a boy this young could be entrusted to kill a nuke-nin as notorious as Zabuza. But something seemed off about the whole ordeal. The fact that the kid was alone on a mission this crucial, for so long with no backup, and that he had only just appeared, reeked of foul play.

For the moment, Kakashi played along, "I see from your mask that you're a hunter nin from Kirigakure, correct?"

The boy straightened out of his bow, "Impressive, you're well informed." He said blandly. Still, he could never beat Itachi when it came to speaking monotonously.

Naruto made a commotion of pretending to know what a hunter nin was when it was obvious that he didn't. Sakura then turned on her lecture mode and gave her blonde knucklehead teammate the 101 on hunter nin basics.

Naruto squinted at his teammate, then at the masked teen, "But Sakura… he's the same age as us! He couldn't have taken Zabuza out in one move like that!" Naruto glared at the strange boy, his face growing despondent, "And what does that say about us then, huh? We just look like goofy little kids next to someone like that!"

It was surprisingly Sasuke who responded, "Some people are naturally more powerful than others. Think of Aniki." That shut Naruto up. Everyone in the Academy knew about Itachi's prodigious achievements, especially Team 7 who had close encounters with the genius.

Kakashi stood up and made his way over to Naruto, "Sasuke is right, Naruto. In this world there are kids who are younger than you, and more powerful than me." _(I had been one of them, and it got to my head. I'm sorry father… I'm sorry Obito…)_ "There are some things that we all have to live with, this is one of them. Knowing where your limits are is something every genin will learn eventually." Kakashi reached up and ruffled his student's blonde head _(so much like his father's… Minato-_ _sensei_ _I'm sorry I didn't look after your son)_ , "It's just another part of growing up." He finished with a smile.

The Kiri nin shunshined over to the body and bent down. Kakashi tensed, ready to tell his team to move out _now_ before they saw the more gruesome part of being a hunter nin, when the teen bent down and threw a deadweight arm over his shoulder, in preparation to pick the body up. Now Kakashi tensed for a whole other reason as his suspicions returned in full force. Hunter nin protocol stated that targets were to be disposed of at the site of death.

The boy spoke, furthering Kakashi's paranoia "You're struggle is over for now. I much deal with the remains." The wording was strange. 'For now' sounded almost like a promise and a threat. Kakashi glanced at his team and Tazuna then at the shinobi bowed under the dead weight of Momochi's body, "Please excuse me, the secrets within this body must not fall in the wrong hands." And with that the boy left before Kakashi could consider taking action against him.

So he knew that Kakashi was suspicious of him. That didn't play well into his favor.

With a tired sigh, Kakashi finally pulled his hitai-ate down over Obito's Sharingan _(thank you, my friend, for this gift once more)_ and released the clone from his duty. "Come on, team, we still have to get Tazuna to his home."

The man in question laughed nervously, fiddling with his onion-shaped hat, "Heh, sorry for all this trouble I've caused you. But you can rest once we get to my house!"

Kakashi absently nodded as he pulled his summoning scroll out of his sleeve and returned it to the scroll pocket on his flack jacket. Briefly he wondered if it was worth it to undo his elaborate trap, but decided against it. Now that the excitement was over, Naruto was looking far worse than he did. The boy had turned nearly as pale as Sasuke and was visibly shaking where he stood.

As Kakashi watched the poor kid's eyes rolled back in his head and he finally passed out. Luckily Kakashi was close enough to catch him and easily maneuvered his student so that he was riding piggy back. "Let's move out!" Kakashi ordered.

The remaining genin slowly shuffled forwards into a loose defensive formation around Tazuna while Kakashi took the rear. After two encounters with enemy shinobi, the genin were paranoid of another attack, but Kakashi knew that there would be no more fights.

At least for a while…

 **vvv Konohagakure, Hi no Kuni vvv**

 **vvv March 7; 4:58 pm vvv**

 **vvv Itachi vvv**

Itachi was not having a good day.

It had all started when he got home from a long mission only to have the Hokage inform him about Team 7's month long mission having been upped to an A-Rank and that Kakashi was requesting backup. A team of chūnin lead by Genma had already been deployed, as well as an ANBU operative just in case Naruto's condition was jeopardized. It was enough to give Itachi a heart attack.

But the bad news didn't end there, not by a long shot. Itachi had finally, shamefully, reported the rumors of the second Uchiha coup to the Hokage, as was his job, to which the Hokage assured him that it would be brought up among the council so that plans could be made. That alone made Itachi almost cringe. Homura had yet to forgive the Uchiha clan for leading to Danzo's death; even after so many years Itachi still didn't understand how the elder had made the illogical jump from Danzo attacking Shisui for his Sharingan to blaming the Uchiha for the traitorous elder's execution.

To make matters worse, Shisui had sent his own report from the depths of the Akatsuki. The message had been brief and vague, promising nothing but more information to come during the Chūnin Exams. It was entirely unhelpful, stating only that the Akatsuki were beginning to take the first steps to their offensive.

Finally to complete Itachi's very bad day, he couldn't find his damn ninja wire he had special ordered from Nekobaa, though he had a good idea of where it was currently, his mother was starting up her campaign for grandchildren again, and his favorite tea shop had been out of the Anji White Green Tea he favored, leaving him with a choice of subpar teas that tasted more of burnt grass than anything else.

And that was how Izumi found him.

Izumi had been a childhood friend, much like Shisui, but during the year that Shisui and Itachi had been running interference between the Konoha and the Uchiha clan, Izumi had drifted apart from the other two. She hadn't been able to understand why they were always busy, being only a genin at the time she didn't have the clearance to know about the coup.

After Shisui became a nuke-nin to save the clan, there had been a brief time that Izumi tried to comfort Itachi, but he had been lost in his grief for his best friend to care about anything other than his brother, and even that had been only the barest amounts.

"Itachi-kun!" Itachi looked up at his name and was greeted with the sight of Izumi all grown up. If he was a man of expression he might have blushed, she had certainly grown into her looks. As it was, he did feel the tips of his ears redden a bit. Luckily his bangs hid most of it from view. She had always looked pretty as a child, having inherited the natural beauty most Uchiha possessed, but now she was more graceful where she had previously been awkward. Izumi wore the standard KMPF uniform with her long brown hair up in a bun instead of flowing down her back like it had in their youth. At some point she had started wearing a pale shade of lip rouge, making her look older than her seventeen years of age.

The girl– woman– was smiling at him, "It's been so long since I've seen you, you're always off doing missions. I heard you're a sensei now? What's that like?"

Itachi cleared his throat, slightly embarrassed that he had been staring at her, "I'm not a sensei, I help my otouto's team train when their sensei is busy."

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't assume things." Izumi nervously apologized and looked away, a blush forming on her own cheeks. Itachi huffed quietly in amusement, some things never changed. Ever since he first met Izumi during their Academy days she was always apologizing for something she said, even though she never needed to.

Izumi glanced at Itachi out of the corner of her eye, "So… how is your brother? He was the Rookie of his year, yes?" She looked like she was ready to apologize if he so much as twitched wrong.

Itachi gave her a small smile and motioned for her to take the seat across from him, "Yes, we were all very proud of his achievement." Itachi wanted to elaborate but didn't know how. Casual conversation had never been a strength of his.

The recently turned seventeen year old before him nodded slowly, obviously trying to think of a way over the awkward silence beginning to descend on the two. However, Itachi beat her to it, to the surprise of them both, "Do you enjoy working in the police force?"

She smiled and nodded enthusiastically, "Yeah! I love it a lot, it's so interesting being able to help people everyday, just like my dream!"

Itachi knew she was lying, the only person who could genuinely pull off that level of enthusiasm was Maito Gai. If he had been Shisui he would have called her out on the lie and ask how she was really doing; but Itachi was not his cousin, so he just leveled a flat stare at her, expecting her to confess without prompting.

Sighing Izumi slumped in her seat, "Sorry… I don't really like it all that much to be honest. My captain makes me do the paperwork our squad has to fill out and that's pretty much it. He's one of those old fashioned people who believe that women have no place in the police force." Gasping, Izumi bowed her head, "Sorry, that was rude of me."

Chuckling, Itachi shook his head, "You are entitled to an opinion, Izumi-chan." At the name, Izumi blushed deep red but Itachi studiously ignored it and his own embarrassment at the slip, "If you don't like being a police officer why don't you quit and join the regular forces?" Most Uchiha didn't bother with the regular forces. Instead they joined the KMPF because there was always a guaranteed spot in the police for any Uchiha and it offered a steady pay, whereas taking missions often meant that there were periods of no income if one didn't have a needed specialization.

As far as Itachi knew, only three out of ten Uchiha joined the regular shinobi force; and most of them ended up either in T&I or on frontal assault teams. Neither options were really suited to Izumi's skills, unless she had changed her pursuits.

Izumi lifted one shoulder in a half hearted shrug, "I thought about joining the Medic Corp, but I don't have the control for it. Besides, Uchiha are notorious for being bad at iryo ninjutsu." The way she had mockingly said that last part made Itachi wonder if someone had said it to her.

"If you believe that then you never will be a medic."

The woman gave him a dirty look, "I didn't say I did believe it! Every where I turn I'm shut out because of my gender or my clan name! It's not fair… maybe I should just quit."

Itachi shrugged and took a drink of his tea, holding back his grimace when the cool liquid entered his mouth. It took every ounce of control he had not to spit it back out. "Life is never fair, especially in our line of work. To believe that life has even the opportunity to be fair is naive and foolish."

Izumi was giving him a strange look, one of pity and possibly horror, "Oh Itachi-kun… how can you think that?" She asked in a soft whisper.

The question caused Itachi to withdraw back into the safety of his neutral expression. Izumi looked remorseful and opened her mouth, most likely to apologize, when Itachi stood cutting her off before she could even start, "I thank you for your company, Izumi-san, sadly I have duties to attend to. I wish you a good day." He said politely and left before she could get a word in edgewise.

Izumi's question nagged at the back of Itachi's mind for the rest of the day, and every time he so much as gave it a second thought, reason upon reason why he was so cynical towards life came forward. It started with his unfortunate encounter at the age of four, when a kidnapping attempt gone wrong left Itachi covered in his would-be kidnapper's blood and his father standing protectively over him, red Sharingan blazing in the dark. Then the Kyuubi attack, only a few years later, gave him a fear for his brother's wellbeing. From there it went to his own activation of the kekkei genkai and the death of his teammates. His first kill. Every mission he had been on as an ANBU Operative. Having to make the awful decision to abandon fallen or wounded comrades for the sake of completing a mission as a captain. The Uchiha coup d'état. And finally all his reasons landed on Shisui, someone who brightened the world with a smile and a well placed joke, who willingly becoming a necessary evil in order for his family and village to continue on in peace.

Something that was beginning to unravel.

Yes, Itachi wasn't having a very good day.

^o^

Ugh! Finally finished. And I had this awesome Author's Note for y'all here at the end, but I'm so burnt out from writing this thing that I forgot what it was about.

Anyway! I'm not sure if I'm going to continue along with the Izumi thing. _(For those of you who haven't read/watched Itachi Shinden, Izumi is a canon character)_ She just kinda snuck into the story without my noticing and now I'm not sure what to do with her. (Although embarrassed Itachi is freaking adorable!) She does kinda mess with my plans a little… maybe… I'm not so sure, but we'll see as we cross that bridge. And we're finally getting closer to the Chūnin Exams! That's were all the fun and interesting stuff comes in ;) Right now we're still on the whole 'introduce the characters and layout the plot' part.

BTW: How do y'all like the fight between Zabuza and Kakashi? I was trying to make Kakashi appear more like the badass ANBU Captain he is instead of the 'who is this new mysterious sensei that we know nothing about' guy that was in canon at this point.

Also, I never asked, but do you actually like having so many POVs throughout the story? I'm curious.

 **Ages as of the end of this chapter: Team 7 (12), Haku (15), Nozomi (17), Izumi (17), Itachi (18), Shisui (21), Tamashi (25), Zabuza (26), Kakashi (26), and Kisame (29)**


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I ain't ownin' Naruto any time soon

Considering that I'm uber tired right now, I don't really care about a first Author's Note ('Sides, I don't think anyone ever reads them… well I take that back but anyway I digress) so here's the story, enjoy!

 **Hey hey! I rewrote a few things in the _prologue_ , mainly changing how Shisui killed Orochimaru and expanding on that fight as well as explaining how things went down with Danzo a bit more clearly and clearing up how time flowed in all the chapters in general…**

 **Warning:** More gore and sadists… I'm starting to think that maybe I should change the rating to M… I'm starting to push the boundaries on this Teen rating. However, my P.I.C. says I haven't reached that point yet so it'll stay T for a while yet!

 **Disclaimer:** Any poison information is taken directly from the internet and is only used as a method of psychological torture. None of this should be applied to real life situations; I don't want to be an unknowing accomplice in your dirty deeds so let's leave poisoning to fictional stories, deal?

 **vvv**

 _Flutter of the Raven Bird_

 _Leads me on my path_

 _Or distracts me from my goal_

 **vvv Household of Morikawa; Hi no Kuni vvv**

 **vvv March 17; 10:02 pm vvv**

 **vvv Nozomi vvv**

Panting. Hisses of pain. Moans and whimpers. Groaning.

The stifling feeling of humidity and too much movement in a small space. Feeling the hard wooden floor underneath. The awkward and uncomfortable feeling of clothes sticking to the skin. Sounds of someone moving slowly against the floor, causing floorboards to creak. The occasional thunk of something hitting the floor.

Smells of sweat and blood, drowned out by the overbearing putrid stench of stomach acid and exposed organs.

I smirked when the man whimpered again, oh how I dearly loved it when men like this guy were brought low by the women they liked to abuse. I enjoyed making their deaths as slow and painful as possible. Sitting in the shadows under the room's sole window, my head rested on a fist as I gleefully watched the man's weak struggle against his own inevitable death. Periodically he would raise a hand to the hilt of my tantō buried in his gut, but the slighted movement of the weapon would cause him to cry out and drop his hand again. It was music to my ears.

Pushing a strand of blonde hair that had escaped its pins, I finally stood and withdrew my small box of poisons from deep inside my mussed and bloodied kimono. The man's wild eyes turned towards me as I approached him. He let loose a long low moan of fear tried to move, but the blade of my tantō was buried too deeply in the floor for him to escape.

I ignored the man's weak pleas as I knelt down by my victim and made a show of comforting him. I shushed him, like a caring mother would, and gently petted his sweaty, thinning hair back. My Target whimpered fearfully, looking at me as if I was something out of a nightmare. I took pride in that look.

"Shhhhh, it's okay… I know it hurts, I'm sorry. I wish I could make it better." I crooned softly, caressing his cheek. I leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead, which caused the man to shiver. I pulled back and smiled serenely down at him before lashing out as quick as a snake and roughly grabbed his chin, making his mouth do a funny pucker.

My smile twisted into a leer and I pulled him up so that our faces were inches apart. He screamed at the sudden movement, giving me a nice faceful of his nasty sake laced breath. I grimaced in disgust at the stench, but continued in spite of it, "However our time has sadly come to a close, so I haven't got the time. But you're in luck! I'm giving you a new meaning to the phrase 'pick your poison'!"

I sat back on my heels and rested the box on my lap. With one hand I released the latch and turned the box around showed him my treasures. A colorful array of fifteen tiny glass vials twinkled in the dying light of the sun. "Well go on." I said cheerfully, bringing my victims face close to the box so that the vials pressed into his cheek, "Pick one!"

The man only sobbed quietly.

Scoffing I shoved him back on the floor, "No one ever wants to pick one." I mumbled, pouting as I placed the box on the floor and knelt down again. I looked between the man and the poisons, trying to decide with would be the best for this situation. Strychnine seemed like a good poison, I pulled out a vial with a slightly smokey liquid and shook it. I looked down to see the man staring at the vial with growing horror. I smiled, "Curious about it? It's Strychnine. It's one of the most painful fast-working poisons I have. It'll start with muscle spasms in your head and neck, and eventually travel until your whole body is one big twitching mess and your back is continuously arched; would be quite painful with your little _scratch_ , eh? After that the neurons that control your breathing will give out until you eventually die of asphyxia. In other words, you die from suffocation. The whole process is about two to three hours, depending on how much I give you." I flicked the bottle, "This whole thing is a full three hours of torture. Wanna try it?"

The man hurriedly shook his head negative.

With a sigh, I put the poison to the side, so I wouldn't pick it up again, and rifled through my box again. I ignored the four poisons that wouldn't take affect until months after I poisoned him. I didn't have time to wait around, and besides, he'd go blab to the nearest shinobi about being poisoned. I couldn't have that. I pulled out my vial of Ricin powder, "Now this one here is a wonderful thing. It's called Ricin and only a few grains of this can kill you; but it takes anywhere from thirty-six hours to three days to kill you, depending on the dose, so I won't use this. Can't have you running off and telling everyone that I poisoned you, now can I?"

The man finally found his courage to speak up, "W-why are you d-doing this?"

I made a noise of surprised and blinked innocently down at him, "You mean I didn't tell you? Oh dear me, I could have sworn that I did…" I raised a hand to my chest and tsked at myself, "I tell you I just forget everything these days. Oh well, I'm here to kill you because you have something that I want. No other reason." Not quite true. The _Akatsuki_ needed to nip his growing spy ring in the bud before it had a chance to be a problem, but I couldn't very well tell him that. Even with him dying tonight, information like that had a habit of getting out.

"T-Take it! Take everything! Please!" The man begged.

I patted his cheek condescendingly and cooed at him, "Aw, you're cute." Without another word I turned back to my poisons. I went through three more poisons, including the venom of a Mamushi snake, an oil mixed of Cyanide and Tetrodotoxin, and finally, "How about Aconite? You'll vomit and have diarrhea for the first part, followed by a numbness in the mouth and face, as well as burning in the abdomen… though," I glanced down at his torn stomach and said as an afterthought, "You're already feeling that, so it probably won't make much difference. Anyway, the numbness will spread throughout your entire body until it will eventually paralyze your heart. It takes about two to six hours." I looked at the vial thoughtfully before putting it back. I had used that poison to take out the Hamaguchi household. It wouldn't do me any good to use it again so soon.

"But you know what? I think I'll go with my Hemlock Extract." I pulled out the correct vial and tilted it so that the last rays of the sun shone through it, showing off a pretty spring green color. "This beauty is fascinating. It only takes roughly three hours at the most to work, but it's the symptoms that makes it so wonderful. You see, it's fast working, so it will paralyze you within thirty minutes, but your mind will be clear the whole time all the way until death when your respiratory system cuts out." I grinned down at my crying victim, "You'll be literally left with your own thoughts until death, unable to do anything but _think_. It's a poetic way to die isn't it?"

"Y-you can't m-m-make me d-drink that!" My victim stuttered defiantly.

I giggled as I carefully uncorked the vial. "If I wasn't getting so much joy in killing you, I might keep you alive a little longer. You're so _amusing_!" I twittered and fluttered my eyelashes the way I was taught. I placed my free hand on the hilt of my tantō and smiled, I imagine I looked somewhat unhinged, "You see, I don't have to make you do anything. The poison will work if you ingest it orally, through your eyes or… in open wounds." With that, I yanked my tantō out of the man's gut and dumped half the extract into his wound while he was distracted from the pain.

I quickly collected my vials into their box and stood up. "Now, I'll leave you alone with your thoughts. I've got a few things to grab before I leave. I had a wonderful time today, no thanks to you. If you'll excuse me." I tucked my box back in my kimono, straightened the garment, and sashayed fluidly out the door. The man could be heard crying throughout the house as I riffled through his possessions, setting aside all information and bland paperwork for the Akatsuki, someone _else_ could determine what was useful, while I slipped multiple priceless items into the empty pouch around my waist. I even found a cask of ryo in the wine cellar! Eventually the man's gross sobbing began to die down and stilled entirely exactly thirty-seven minutes after I administered the poison.

When I went to check up on him an hour after, he was still alive but fully paralyzed now, awkwardly positioned since he had been flailing about while he was still able. I giggled at the sight of him and returned to my pilfering. Close to the two hour mark I went back into the bedroom to clean myself up. Shamelessly, I disrobed in front of my victim, showing him what he almost had if I had let him touch me a few minutes longer. I threw the discarded filthy outer kimono at him with a foxy grin before digging out my thief disguise and took it into the bathroom with me, exaggerating the swing in my hips greatly to give him one last good show.

In the bathroom I spent the next hour washing the blonde hair dye out with hot water and a special oil Sasori-san had made for me when he had created the dyes. Pulling my wet silver locks into a sloppy ponytail, I wrapped a dark head wrap over it, to hide the telling color. After that I dressed myself in a dark bodysuit, a face mask to cover the lower half of my face, long dark gloves, and close-toed shoes. The only part of my body visible now were my eyes and the bridge of my nose. I waltzed back out of the bathroom to find my victim catatonic. When I checked the pulse I found it very weak but still there. He must be on the verge of passing out from lack of air. I'd bet my entire collection of hair ornaments that he'd be dead before I left the house

I smiled underneath my mask, "Well, it seems this is where we part ways. I didn't enjoy killing you for the sake of watching you die, you know. I enjoyed it because I knew that after this night, there would be no more girls hurt by you. I'm not _that_ sadistic. Tamashi-san seems to think I am though, which is really annoying. Luckily she has her own mission this week, so I shouldn't have to deal with her when I get back." It would be just me and my two senpai, just like the old days. I beamed at the thought.

"I suppose I should say a few words, or something, since I'm the person with you during your last moments; but you probably don't want me to seeing as I am your killer after all. So I'll just leave you here. Have fun in the afterlife I guess!" I bid him cheerfully goodbye as I headed towards the window. I pressed my first two fingers on the seal just to the left of the windowsill, releasing the privacy seal I had placed there to prevent the neighbors from hearing the man scream. After the seal had deactivated I set it on fire with the Spark jutsu, leaving only a faint scorch mark in its place.

Giving one last finger wave, even though he was probably already dead and wouldn't see it, I grabbed the top frame and flipped out onto the roof. It was night now, but still early enough that a few people were out, heading home from work or running to buy a last needed ingredient for their dinner. I crouched low on the clay tiles, keeping my weight balanced and going slowly so that none of them made any noise. When I reached the western side of my Target's house, I jumped down into a narrow alleyway instead of continuing on. Small villages like this didn't really have the best roofs. Rather than being flat and evenly spaced like in shinobi villages, so that people could easily run along them, these roofs were traditional, with steep slopes and spread apart too vastly for even the best ninja to leap across without making a sound.

I spent the next fifteen minutes slipping in and out of the shadows, slowly making my way towards the village wall furthest away from the gate. Gate guards were specially trained to notice the comings and goings of people and, while I could easily make it across without being spotted, I was in a hurry and it was just easier to climb over the low walls. I made plenty of pit stops as well, lifting things that I found interesting and, in one instance, when I was hungry. With only a quick jump to a nearby roof, I was leaping over the ten foot wall and on my way back to my senpai.

 **vvv Location Classified vvv**

 **vvv Date and Time Withheld vvv**

 **vvv ANBU Operative Panther vvv**

Panther had seen plenty in his twenty-three years, things that would make most jounin wet their pants like a genin experiencing killer intent for the first time. He was considered to the perfect soldier, one of the many 'fine' examples of a proper shinobi. Panther had no ties to anything other than his career, he was a blank slate when he was sent to Konoha to be an ANBU Ne agent; he had nothing but the fear of test tubes, snakes, and his own barely controllable power.

In Ne, he learned what control really meant. He was quickly taught what respect was. He had been enlightened on his place in the hierarchy of the world. He hadn't even a 'he' for it spoke too much of individuality, instead he had been Operative 010992; the one Danzo sent when he wanted to show, quietly of course, the true might of Konoha. A mindless drone that didn't question, didn't think, and didn't disobey.

It had been Senpai that showed him the meaning of life. Senpai that began to sow seeds of doubt in his mind, making him _wonder_ and _think_. Dangerous things to a Ne Operative. Those that couldn't conform were weeded out. Brutal but effective, that was the Ne way. They watched strictly from the shadows, doing the dirty jobs that even other ANBU wouldn't touch. But Senpai… he showed Panther that there was a line that just couldn't be crossed, no matter what your excuse was.

Panther enjoyed his life as a normal ANBU, a normal _person_ who was allowed to think, react without consequence and to just _smile_ whenever he felt like it. He even found that he _liked_ smiling, a lot. But he was forever reminded of his dark stint in Ne every time he opened his mouth in front of a mirror and saw the beginnings of his seal in the back of his mouth, barely visible. He was forever haunted whenever he reported to the Hokage with his team and found Danzo there. How he wish he could spill the secrets of the organization to the Hokage, how he wished he could warn his team of the undercover Ne spy that had been assigned to the team.

But in the end it turned out to be a moot point, when Uchiha Shisui had done the inexplicable and killed Danzo. Only… Panther and every remaining Ne member had been confused and suspicious of the whole thing. While no one doubted that Shisui killed Danzo, the facts didn't line up. Shisui had deserted the village in the dead of night on November 29, but the seal on the back of every Ne Operatives' tongue, both present and former, had not faded until the day after, at midday.

It was a mystery shrouded by half truths and vague answers. No one seemed to know why Shisui did it, not even his cousin and best friend Itachi. As far as everyone seemed to think Shisui had just snapped and killed Danzo. No reason, no motive. Though, in the back of his mind, Panther couldn't honestly say he regretted the old Warhawk's death, the man was under severe delusions and needed to be stopped. Panther hadn't dismissed the idea that maybe Shisui had been ordered by the Hokage to take out a threat to the village. In fact, half of the ANBU agents seemed to be under the same impression, while the rest were firm believers that the boy just snapped. Both were legitimate possibilities, being that the kid was an Uchiha and a high ranking jounin who was reputed to being extremely close to the Hokage.

Yes, ANBU Operative Panther had seen many things in his life, both good and bad, and the scene before him was tame in comparison to some of his previous missions. The team he was accompanying however…

He could hear one of the chūnin he was following vomiting in the bushes.

Kakashi-senpai had sent one of his summons back to Konoha to update the mission ranking the moment his team had encountered chūnin level missing nin. In response the Hokage sent a team of chūnin and an ANBU for back up. It had only been a few hours into the morning when they had finally reached the first Point of Interest, two days since Kakashi's team had crossed the area. Even if Kakashi-senpai's ninken hadn't been leading the team to where Kakashi had left the Demon Brothers, there was no possible way they could have missed the stench of rotting corpses.

Operative Panther knelt down to inspect one of the bodies, both had remained in their positions that Kakashi had described, tied to a tree by their own chains. As Konoha was only a day's run away from this location, three days had passed in total. These men shouldn't be dead, not by natural causes, especially not long enough to start smelling.

Inwardly thankful of his long gloves, Panther gently probed the skintight mask covering the first man's lower face and neck. The cloth was riddled with small puncture marks, each about a centimeter in diameter with an inward impact at a thirty degree angle, aiming towards the right. Based on the area of infliction and the size of the punctures, Panther knew the man had died from a senbon attack.

Wordlessly, Panther looked into the trees, scanning for a branch that would match the trajectory of the weapon. When he found his quarry in the next tree over he leaped over to it to look for any clues the attacker might have left behind. There was nothing, not even a broken twig on a neighboring branch. Whoever did this was an expert; normally only ANBU and equally powerful shinobi had this level of precision, and there weren't many out there who were so skilled with senbon. There was only one shinobi in all of Konoha who used senbon as their main weapon, and he was standing a few feet away. Everyone else used them as distraction techniques or in medical situations that called for acupuncture.

Panther returned to the corpses to inspect the second man. Or rather what was left of him. Even Panther couldn't quite push away the unease rolling in his gut at the sight of a headless and legless torso tied to a tree. The head was no where in sight, but the legs were till in their position they had been before the man was cut in half, they only listed slightly to the left– enough to know that they weren't _attached_ to the main body anymore. If it could even be called that.

The agent stood back up and stepped away. Two victims, two different methods. It was obvious that there was someone on Team 7's trail, but why they would kill two powerless men was a mystery. With a speed that spoke of long experience in dealing with these types of situations, Panther withdrew two ready made body scrolls from one of his weapon pouches and sealed the stiff bodies away. He turned to Kakashi-senpai's summon, "Take these to T&I, let them deal with it. Inform them of the situation. We'll continue onwards to the Land of Waves." He ordered. The auburn colored greyhound dipped his head and took both scrolls gingerly in his mouth.

As the hound disappeared, Panther nodded towards Genma to continue the journey. The senbon specialist dipped his head in acknowledgment and lead his team off. Operative Panther stayed there for a moment longer, scanning the trees for any sign of life before running to catch up with his comrades. He had the uneasy sense of being watched the entire time.

And after the forest had settled back down, a lone raven hopped back out of the foliage and began gorging himself on the missing head that had rolled under the bushes. Even though he had strict orders from the Master to stay on their tail, he didn't think it mattered if he fell a little behind when there was this magnificent feast open to him.

 **vvv Nami no Kuni vvv**

 **vvv March 14; 11:26 am vvv**

 **vvv Omnipresent vvv**

Kakashi… well, he wasn't sure what to think. Other than promising himself that he would have to have a _long_ talk with a certain Uchiha heir when he got back to Konoha, Kakashi didn't know what to say.

Not that he showed it of course.

"Well, if you've all completed that training then," Honestly, couldn't Itachi have at least _informed_ him that he taught their cute little students the tree-walking technique? Was that too much to ask? "I supposed taijutsu spars would suffice. Naruto, Sasuke… if you would." Kakashi chirped in his extra cheerful voice that he used when he wanted people to be pissed off by his sheer presence alone.

The two genin shot each other looks of equal disgust and loathing before stalking forward and facing each other. Naruto's lips pulled back to reveal his teeth in what was a mix of both a snarl and grin, "You're going down, Teme!" He boasted, giving Sasuke a thumbs down _(Kami, Obito… he's just like you)._

Sasuke scoffed and stuffed his hands in his shorts' pockets, the epitome of boredom. In a fit of rage at being dismissed so easily, Naruto charged towards Sasuke; but Kakashi intervened at the last second by grabbing Naruto's outreaching fist and pushing him back to his starting position easily.

"Maa… I didn't say 'go' yet." He drawled as a feeling of déjà vu came over him.

From the sidelines Sakura, exasperated and annoyed at the blonde, began lecturing Naruto on all his faults as well as praising Sasuke in a single breath. Kakashi watched her from the corner of his eye, still standing between the two boys to prevent any more preemptive attacks. _Rin_ had never been like that, _Rin_ was kind and stern to both her teammates when they wouldn't stop fighting. _Rin_ would never raise her voice to her comrades. Her crush on Kakashi had been obvious to everyone, just as Obito's crush on her had been obvious to everyone _but_ her; but _Rin_ never let her feelings get in the way. _Rin…_

 _(Sakura. Wasn't. Rin)_

Kakashi had to admit it, even if only to himself, that he was over his head. Other than the introductions he put Team 7 through on their initial day, and the bell test the day after, Kakashi didn't have much interaction with his genin, and when he did all he could see was his own team. Thus he avoided them as best he could, leaving Itachi trained and bonded with them; all Kakashi did was chose their missions and oversee them from a distance.

But now Kakashi was alone with his team and didn't have a clue what to do. The ANBU operative in him sneered in disgust at his own actions. This was his _team_ now, his duty to keep alive, to train, to make soldiers out of them. And instead he just dumped their training off on the nearest person. Someone who had his own team of ANBU to lead _(just another thing I fail at)._

"Right then. Make the seal of confrontation." Kakashi started, shunting his thoughts into a small dark corner of his mind to deal with later. Both boys gave each other the stink eye and made no move to make the seal. When it was obvious Kakashi wouldn't continue until someone made the seal, Sasuke reluctantly raised his hand and held out two fingers in front of his mouth, glaring over them at Naruto. The blond quickly followed his teammates lead.

"Shinobi hand to hand combat…" Kakashi raised his arm as another sense of déjà vu came over him, this one laced with bitterness and sorrow _(Minato-sensei… Obito… Rin…)._ He let his arm fall as he jumped back to stand beside Sakura, "Begin!"

They were… pitiful. Even Obito had been better.

But they were well matched for each other at least, or as well matched as a Rookie and Dead Last could be. Obito would have still wiped the floor with Sasuke if they had been the same age _(you should have been their sensei, Obito. You would have been better at this)_.

The spar lasted maybe fifteen minutes, which was a bit long for a shinobi spar but Kakashi could work with it. Sasuke eventually won it of course, but Naruto did put up a decent fight; and they both knew it judging by the way Naruto smirked in his defeat and Sasuke's return glower.

"Sasuke is the winner." Kakashi announced boredly as his two students climbed back to their feet. His right hand kept twitching to reach for Icha Icha, but he refrained. Now wasn't the time for books. His team was faced with a mission that was way above their skill, he didn't _have_ time to read. He shoved both hands deep into his pockets to keep from grabbing the book. "Make the Seal of Reconciliation. Then it's Sakura's turn."

That caused the girl, who had been cheering Sasuke on the whole time, to squeak. _"Eh?!"_ She looked up at Kakashi, her sea green eyes wide. Then she looked at the two boys and smiled, "Okay! Naruto is going down!" She said confidently, cracking her knuckles. She cast Sasuke several looks from the corner of her eye to see if he noticed her. He didn't.

"No… you fight the winner."

Sakura froze. Kakashi could practically see her confidence fleeing her as she realized she had to spar with her crush _(Rin, you never minded_ _spa_ _r_ _ring_ _. What's so different?)_. Sakura swayed where she was standing, looking like she might faint at any given moment. "B-but I… I-I can't… He- You- Why-" She sputtered, looking between Kakashi and Sasuke so fast that Kakashi couldn't help but worry she might get whiplash.

Naruto beamed at the pink haired girl as he trotted over to the sidelines, "You'll do great, Sakura-chan! Kick his ass!" He shouted taking his place on the other side of Kakashi. The blonde haired boy leaned around their sensei to give Sakura a thumbs up and an extra bright grin. If it were possible, the girl went even paler.

Kakashi reached down and gave her a small push towards Sasuke. He didn't have time for this preteen melodrama. "It's just a friendly spar." He reassured her in a slight exasperated tone. Sakura resisted, digging her heels into the ground and shaking her head.

"No! I-I can't fight S-Sasuke-kun! I just can't!" Sakura begged, looking as if she were heading to her execution. "I-I forfeit the match! I can't!" She continued to babble on and on, disregarding Kakashi's encouragement that she would be fine.

By now Sasuke was giving her a glare, he just wanted to train some more and her reluctance to fight was putting them all behind. Kakashi-sensei had promised to show them some better taijutsu moves than the Academy Basic after the sparring. Sasuke knew the basics of the Uchiha clan style as well, but he wouldn't be able to advance in that until he built up more agility. If she didn't hurry up, Kakashi wouldn't be able to show them anything today.

Kakashi was starting to get impatient with his female student, "Sakura!" The entire team froze at the sharp biting tone of their sensei. Sakura felt her eyes tearing up and her lip begin to tremble. She _hated_ it when adults yelled at her. "You _will_ fight Sasuke, there is no forfeiting. Now go." Kakashi barked, giving her a more firm shove causing her to stumble a bit, but she eventually shuffled to face Sasuke.

The Uchiha's mouth twisted in disgust when she finally met his gaze and saw that she was crying. Honestly, why was she even a shinobi if she was just going to cry every time she had to fight. The whole time she had been on the team, she never contributed to anything. All she really did was berate Naruto and gush about how awesome Sasuke was. The only time she was actually better at either of them was during the tree-walking exercise that Aniki had them do. Sasuke couldn't even think of a time that she actually _fought_ , not even in the Academy. Though that might have been because he avoided fangirls as best he could.

The former ANBU captain took a deep breath to calm himself and raised his arm again, "Shinobi hand to hand combat… Begin!" He repeated.

Sasuke shot towards Sakura immediately. She had enough common sense in her and was quick enough to draw a kunai out within that three second window, but it wasn't enough. Sasuke showed no mercy and the girl went flying back from his punch. Kakashi's mouth thinned underneath his mask. That… wasn't too promising for either of them. Sakura had no sense of anticipation, and hardly any taijutsu skill, while Sasuke was a bit too eager for a fight, especially considering his sparring partners were also his teammates.

Looks like Kakashi had his work cut out for him.

 **vvv Location Unknown vvv**

 **vvv March 19; 5:11 am vvv**

 **vvv Shisui vvv**

"Kakuzu killed his partner again."

Shisui's concentration and focus broke with the intrusive voice. His eyes flashed open as he unfolded from his meditative position to lounge against the tree he was under. "You're speaking to me now?" He asked drolly. Contrary to what most people thought, he did retain his sense of humor. It was just much more dry and darker now, and he only ever really showed it when it was just him and Kisame.

Kisame's right cheek jumped. He didn't enjoy being made fun of, but he also didn't care at the moment. He tossed his partner the scroll he was holding, "Leader wants us to go hunting for the replacement. When's the nusume-osanai supposed to report in?"

Shisui scanned the report and tucked it away in this cloak. "Soon." He responded, and leaned his head back against the tree's trunk. Kagutsuchi, one of Shisui's raven summon, shifted on Shisui's shoulder and tilted his head to look at Kisame with one beady little eye. Kisame bared his teeth at the creature, causing the raven to shuffle about nervously. Kisame _hated_ Shisui's summons; he had once told Shisui that every single time he saw the ravens, all he could think of was the Third War and how battlefields would turn into a sea of feathers once the fighting was over.

One such bird flew down from the trees and landed on Shisui's bent knee. The Uchiha glanced at her. Ame-no-Uzume was one of his tracking ravens, and the one he normally sent to watch over Nozomi whenever she was on covert jobs that lasted more than two weeks. A silent conversation passed between them before the raven dismissed herself with a shower of black feathers. Kagutsuchi croaked hoarsely, his wings flicking open halfway to keep his balance as Shisui stood up.

Nozomi trotted out of the woods from the direction that Uzume came from, dressed in all black and grinning widely, with good reason. The pouch she used to carry all her stolen treasures when on a mission in was bulging tremendously. "Senpai! I'm back!" She announced loudly. Neither Shisui or Kisame reprimanded her for it, they both knew she could be silent and professional when she needed to be.

"We're leaving." Shisui announced dryly and began walking away without waiting for his partner or student.

He heard Nozomi squawk and complain, but paid it no heed. His student was known for complaining a lot, but Kisame was perfectly willing to explain the things when Shisui didn't bother to so she eventually quietened. Kagutsuchi jumped off Shisui's shoulder and flew to Nozomi. There the raven clung to her tantō straps, nestled under her wavy shoulder-length silver hair, and began preening the soft short hairs around her ear. The girl giggled at the bird's antics and reached up to stroke his ragged neck feathers. It wasn't often that Shisui summoned Kagutsuchi for this very reason. That particular summon had taken quite a liking to Shisui's student, and was often useless because of it.

Shisui blamed himself of course, when he was still in Konoha he would always summon Kagutsuchi whenever children wanted to play with his birds. Kagutsuchi was one of Shisui's best behaved ravens, he never pecked or caw in someone's face if they annoyed him too much or pulled his feathers like some of the other ravens were wont to do. Instead the bird would sit docilely on anyone's arm or shoulder, happy to be petted and fed.

Honestly, even Shisui considered him a pet more than a summon. The only reason why he had even summoned Kagu in the first place was because he was bored and feeling particularly vindictive towards Kisame. It had been three weeks since Nozomi's run in with Zabuza and the girl had already forgotten about it. She had even made a joke about it at the bounty office when she picked out the job she just completed. Kisame, however, just wouldn't let it go.

In the six years that they had been partners Shisui had done many horrible things, most of them were all worse than what he did to Nozomi, so Kisame's attitude was a bit confusing. He had never cared before how ruthless Shisui could be. Kisame had even congratulated Shisui on some of the actions he had taken. Shisui didn't know the exact reason why his partner constantly acted like a jilted woman towards him, but it was getting annoying and he was beginning to lose his unfathomable patience with the shark-like man.

Nozomi picked up her pace until she was beside Shisui. He glanced at her, but she wasn't looking at him as if she wanted to speak with him. Instead she merely walked with him, swinging her arms carefree and smiling to herself. Shisui had noticed that Nozomi had been more subdued and moody with the arrival of Tamashi-san; he suspected that it might be because the older woman was infringing on what Nozomi considered to be _hers_. Shisui's student was very possessive over a lot of things, but nothing compared to her attachment to Kisame and Shisui. Most people would find it cute and amusing, Shisui just found it alarming.

When he had offered to take the girl with him, he planned her existence out. Nozomi would be loyal to him first, but also loyal to the Akatsuki in order to avoid any suspicion on her part (something that failed already, but Shisui would deal with it later). The girl was a perfect tool, her training made her much more versatile than most spies and gave her many more opportunities than Sasori's sleeper agents. Eventually when Nozomi was powerful enough to stand on her own, Shisui would have brought her into his confidence and made her a spy for Konoha.

Shisui only offered to train her because he saw a light in her eyes that reminded him of Itachi. A determination to see things through to the very end. In the first few days she had been with them, Nozomi was withheld and mistrustful, constantly stealing from Shisui and Kisame things she only had to ask for, but also benign and smiling shyly up at them whenever Kisame or Shisui did something that surprised her. It wasn't something seen in a street urchin often, a rarity that a child could see the good in the world despite having been swallowed by the darkness.

And Shisui destroyed it.

Of course, he honestly didn't mean to. Shisui gave the girl's innocence no thought while he trained her to be the assassin and spy he expected her to be. She was pathetic at first. The girl hadn't even wanted to kill a rabbit for food, she flat out told him she'd much rather share the rabbit's meal than have it as the meal. Kisame laughed for days at that.

Shisui's training grew harsher after the incident with the rabbit, and eventually Nozomi began to show more eagerness. She became more interested in Sasori's sparse lessons on espionage and poisons. Her physical strength and speed grew. She mastered the tantō and began mastering the wakizashi. Nozomi was becoming the perfect assassin.

And while she grew in skill, her kindness diminished until it was nothing but a forgotten memory.

"So who's the new Akatsuki member gonna be?" Nozomi suddenly piped up.

Shisui hummed to himself and didn't answer. He felt no need to, knowing that Kisame would do it. True to his prediction, Kisame responded from behind them, "An old comrade of mine."

The girl gasped and turned around so that she was walking backwards, facing Kisame. Her smile was bright and cheerful. "Really? What's his name? How powerful is he? Is he one of the Seven Swordsmen, or just a normal Kiri nuke-nin? What sword does he use? Think he'll teach me anything?" Nozomi fired off all her questions in quick succession.

Kisame chuckled and didn't say anything more, despite Nozomi's constant wheedling.

 **vvv Gato's fortress, Nami no Kuni vvv**

 **vvv March 15; 3:42 pm vvv**

 **vvv Omnipresent vvv**

"That's it! If you fail this time, I'll cut you off and there will be no one left to cover for you!"

The door rattled in its frame as Gato's goons slammed it shut behind them. Once their footsteps faded away, Haku took his seat by his master's bedside again. Zabuza looked agitated, "That's wasn't necessary." he said, his fist tightening around the kunai hidden under the sheets, angled in the perfect position to gut the little rat he worked for.

The boy smiled, "Perhaps..." He allowed, "But think about it, if we take out Gato now, the Hunters will be on our trail again. We barely lost them the last time." Haku closed his eyes as his smile widened, his tone just barely scolding, "We need restraint."

Zabuza exhaled, not pleased with the turn of events. If that damned Kakashi hadn't been guarding the old man, they could already be _done_ with this stupid job. But instead he was invalid for just under a week, at the least, while the jounin got off scotch free. This was personal now, Zabuza was going to _destroy_ the Copy Cat for making him look like such a fool!

Haku stood after a while, "I'm going out to pick herbs. Try not to kill anyone while I'm gone." The boy teased gently. Zabuza huffed and looked away from his charge. It was unsaid between the both of them that the joke wasn't so much as a joke as it was a warning. Haku hadn't been sitting there for hours to protect his master from Gato's men but to protect the men from Zabuza.

The Scion of the Yuki clan moved to the window that overlooked Gato's fortress. He smiled eagerly as he took his hair down. The Land of Waves was well known for its vast variety of wild herbs growing throughout the forests. Haku couldn't wait to see what he could harvest.

Unbeknownst to either ninja, a raven perched on the curved eaves just above the window, his head cocked in a way so that he was staring straight down from the overhand with one eye. Beside the giant bird was one of its smaller cousins, the crow, shuffled from side to side acting as if it was bored. With a strange rapid clicking noise, the crow leaped on its companion and plucked a feather from it's back. The raven shrieked and jumped into the air, trying to pummel the crow with its giant wings.

Haku, startled by the sudden noise on the roof, looked up just in time to see a small black bird shoot off the roof, followed by another bird nearly twice its size. He watched as they circled the air furiously, cawing at each other loudly until they were nothing but two specks of black in the sky.

Haku gave the matter little thought as he turned back around and walked away to change into his off-duty yukata.

Miles away the crow and raven were now sitting together on a branch, head both cocked curiously as they watched three small children with wildly colored hair practicing certain sets of movement while their sensei sat under a tree across the clearing. And though the silver haired man never took his eyes off the genin, he kept his attention on the two birds.

Kakashi's outward appearance did not change, but inside he was concerned. He distinctly remembered that the corvid summoning contract was shared between two Uchiha, one of which was now an international criminal. He hoped that it wasn't Shisui spying on them, but Itachi checking up on his little brother's team.

The last thing he needed was an S-class nuke-nin sniffing around his cute little students.

^o^

 _Well this chapter just… kinda went in it's own direction._

 **CHALLENGE!** Can anyone guess why Operative Panther used to be Operative 010992? All it takes is a little research to figure it out. First one to figure it out gets a special reward!

 **Anyway, headcanon time**! I can't remember if it's canon or not that Shisui had the crow summoning contract first and shared it with Itachi (I'm 75% certain, idk I've been hanging around Shisui RP blogs too long), but I like that crows are unique to Itachi so, I gave Shisui ravens (because _RAVENS_ ). Also, Shisui names all his summons after Shinto deities. Therefore:

(Kagu)tsuchi: named after the god of fire (patron to blacksmiths and potters)

Ame-no-(Uzume): named after the goddess of dawn and revelry.

We'll see some more raven summons in the future.

 **IMPORTANT! To boost review count, I'm gonna try something that one of my friends does. If you review (logged in), I'll _PM you a small portion of the next chapter,_ a preview if you will. The longer the review the longer the preview (maybe, we'll see how it goes first) It might take a while depending on how fast I write the next chapter, but it will come to you way before the next chapter is uploaded. IDK what I'm gonna do for a guest reviewer, but I'll think of something!**

 _ **(FLPOLE01, you don't count since I let you read the chapters in advance anyway.)**_

 **Ages as of the end of this chapter: Team 7 (12), Haku (15), Nozomi (17), Itachi (18), Shisui (21), Panther (23), Zabuza (26), Kakashi (26), and Kisame (30)**

 _Thanks for reading, until next chapter! *salutes*_


	7. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: Ha ha no**

 **So someone informed me that _technically_ Yūgao is ANBU Operative 'Cat' and Tenzō's mask is never named really (believe me, as soon as I found out I tried to find what animal it is, but so far there's no answer), therefore, I changed it to Panther. With the stripes, it might have been better to call him 'Tiger', but I couldn't stop giggling about it.**

 **Also, can I just say that I hate writing Sakura's POV? The immaturity levels of the syntax is making my inner Grammar Nazi wanna crawl under a bed and cry for eternity. Or strangle something…**

 **Side note: Her Inner Sakura is in** **_bold and italics._**

 **vvv**

 _Gracefully I fall_

 _Into oblivion_

 **vvv Nami no Kuni vvv**

 **vvv March 20; 8:34 am vvv**

 **vvv Sakura vvv**

Fear.

Sakura thought she knew what that word meant. She thought that as a kunoichi of Konoha, she would be above fear. That fear wouldn't be able to control her, because she was a _ninja_ and ninja didn't feel fear. They laughed in the face of fear.

How wrong she was.

She always thought that she was better than most of her classmates, especially _Naruto_. She was top kunoichi of her class after all ( _ **Cha! That's right bitches, I'm the best of the best, so good I was put on Sasuke-kun's team!**_ Okay so she was tied with Ino, but still)! Sakura could recite up to thirty ninja rules verbatim, she knew the theory of genjutsu forwards, backward, and sideways, she had perfect academic scores throughout the Academy (well aside from that little portion at the beginning before she met Ino and failed Ikebane); so okay she didn't do to well in the physical portion of her schooling. But it wasn't like genin were actually _expected_ to know that stuff right out of the Academy!

But… watching Naruto and Sasuke-kun get beaten up like that, and by a boy not that much older than them. Watching them get taken down like that, Sakura learned what true fear was. And she felt so utterly useless. There was her long time crush, the best shinobi in her class, getting torn to shreds by nothing more than a few needles. And _Naruto…_ Naruto, who was the _Dead Last of their year,_ just. Kept. Getting. Back. _Up._

And Kakashi-sensei, the man who trained them, who said he would protect them with his life, the one responsible for their lives; he just… _stood there_ and watched. He even discouraged her from cheering them on. It was in that moment that Sakura hated him so much that it frightened her more than the false Hunter-nin did. And yet, at the same time she understood why he made no move to help his students. That other guy, the one with the big sword who liked to play with their minds, he was a threat to Tazuna-san and according to Shinobi Rule 4: _a shinobi must always put the mission first_.

But it was Kakashi-sensei who taught the team that those who break the rules were scum but those who abandoned their comrades were worse than scum.

Sakura was so confused!

As she stood shivering in front of Tazuna, watching all three of her team members fighting she felt so _useless._ She remembered feeling so empowered the day Itachi-san introduced tree-walking to Team 7, and that she got it down so quickly. Even Itachi-san, a lauded genius, praised her natural chakra control (though she got really mad at him because Sasuke _glared_ at her for the comment). But that sense of prowess didn't last long.

In fact, it lasted only until those two nuke-nin from Kiri attacked the team on the road and Sakura just stood there in front of Tazuna, uselessly holding a kunai out in front of her. Sasuke even had to rescue her from one of their attacks that time!

Whatever tatters of confidence she had left after the attack were vehemently shredded further when Sensei matched her up against Sasuke. After the one punch knockout she received from her crush, Sakura was a bit… disoriented. Not in the sense that Sasuke's punch had made her disoriented– though yes there was that when she woke again– but in the way that she was in an emotional and mental upheaval.

After the taijutsu spar, Sakura was… angry with Sasuke. No, that didn't do her feelings any justice. She had been _furious_ with him! How _dare_ he act like she wasn't worth his time, and that she was just a useless member of the team that needed to be protected as much as the _client_ did! How _dare_ he scoff at her for not wanting to fight him! _ **How dare he!**_ _ **Sasuke-kun will feel my wrath!**_

But in the deepest parts of Sakura's heart she knew Sasuke was _right_.

What had she contributed to the team? Her intelligence? Sasuke had her on that. Her genjutsu theory? As an Uchiha, Sasuke was able to cast several moderate genjutsu, and probably knew the theory more than she did. Her Ninjutsu? Even _Naruto_ was better at that than her, with his Kage Bushin! The only thing Sakura had over the two boys was her chakra control, and that meant absolutely _nothing_ in a real fight.

Haruno Sakura… was useless.

And as she watched in absolute horror as _visible red choking oh KamiohKamiamIgoingto_ _ **die?**_ _!_ chakra shot into the sky. As she watched the mirrors said to be so indestructible _explode_ outwards by sheer force alone. As she watched helplessly as her sensei charged forward with lighting in the palm of his hand. As she watched the death and destruction before her… Sakura made a promise.

 _She would never be useless again!_

 **vvv Location Classified vvv**

 **vvv Time and Date Withheld vvv**

 **vvv Operative Panther vvv**

The moment he felt the Kyūbi's chakra surge, ANBU Operative Panther left the team behind at the shore to run ahead. This mission was now an S-Rank, level 0 security breach. If the enemies escaped with the knowledge of who the jinchūriki was it could spell disaster for Konoha. There had already been so many disasters over the past decade alone that Konoha _–_ the victor of the last Third World War _–_ was beginning to look weak to the other nations and thus prey.

Operative Panther was only a kilometer out from the epicenter of the battle– _i_ _ncomplete bridge: seven chakra signals, four known chakra entities, including one bijū corrupted chakra signal, two unknown_ _,_ _both above B-class skill, one civilian,_ _two chakra constructs_ _-_ _summonings_ _of unknown species_ _. Boat: multiple civilian chakra signals inbound to location, possibl_ _y_ _hostile_ _–_ when as suddenly as the corrosive red chakra of the Kyūbi appeared, it was gone. Panther didn't deviate from his course though, as none of the chakra sources had been snuffed out. Whatever had angered Kyuubi was still alive and liable to set it off again.

Panther ran up one of the looming pillars that supported the bridge and disappeared into the scaffolding that overlooked the battle– _two chakra constructs found, bird summons of the_ corvidae _family._ _Uchiha Itachi- crow. Unknown summoner- raven._ He crouched not very far above the battle blending in with the mist and shadows, acting very much like the animal depicted on his mask.

The scene below him was smothered by a thick fog- _chakra laced,_ _definite_ _jutsu. Unknown hostiles likely of Kiri origin._ Panther could make out two independent battles– one being between Hatake Kakashi and the now identifiable Momochi Zabuza _–_ _Momochi. S-class nuke-nin, formerly Kirigakure. Defected after failed coup. Twenty-five million ry_ _ō offered by Kiri itself, with added bounties from_ _minor_ _countries, totaling to 27 million overall_ _–_ and the other between the jinchūriki, the Uchiha- _chakra source weak, near exhaustion. Appearing deceased, but vitals stable_ _–_ and the second hostile. The latter battle had already concluded with the Kyūbi container and the hostile… were they talking?

Panther fell out of his 'mission persona' just long enough to tilt his head in bemusement at the perfectly rational conversation he was overhearing from the adolescents. Well… maybe not rational after all, the Operative amended when he overheard the hostile talking of how he was but a tool for Zabuza; a useless and broken tool that wanted to die.

Rather than continuing to eavesdrop to a rather disturbing conversation Panther finished surveying the situation. Hatake and Momochi's own fight seemed at a close, with Momochi having suddenly become quite literally dog piled _–_ _eight chakra_ _constructs_ _-_ _summonings,_ _Hatake's ninken pack._ Panther had to hand it to Hatake, he really knew how to catch his enemies off guard.

As Hatake charged his Raikiri, Panther moved his attention to the final source of chakra _–_ the civilian and the remaining member of Kaka- _Hatake's_ team. Though Panther's chakra sense was nothing of repute, even he could tell there was a vast chasm between the young kunoichi and her teammates chakra capacities. Although it was hardly her fault, her teammates were abnormalities with one being a borderline prodigy and the other being both an Uzumaki and jinchūriki. The kunoichi's chakra levels were perfectly normal for a genin her–

 _Blood._

Panther's head snapped back to Kakashi and Momochi's battle. Once again his professional facade slipped away as he saw Kakashi's hand… or rather… when he saw the unknown hostile impaled on Kakashi's arm, having taken the blow meant for his master Momochi. The sight was mildly disturbing, but it was nothing compared to what the ANBU Operative had seen before. Not even Momochi's attempt to cut through his own partner in order to get to Kaka- _Hatake_ surprised the ANBU Operative.

Nuke-nin came in two types– those that were essentially lone wolves and those that took in weaker beings as either followers or comrades. The way the deceased hostile spoke to the Kyūbi container about Momochi, Panther had immediately categorized their relationship as the latter.

 _First hostile eliminated._

The battle between the two jounin resumed, and was much fiercer than before. No longer was Hatake seeking just to protect his client and end the fight without much blood. No, now he was aiming to kill, to maim, and to bring the worst amounts of pain upon his opponent. Panther paid the pair no mind, he was well aware that this fight was more personal than the last. A battle of opposing morals.

Instead, he kept his eyes trained on the genin and client. All three seemed to believe that the Uchiha boy was deceased, crowding around the senbon-riddled body like a last viewing. If he felt it was withing the parameters of his personal mission, Panther might confirm that the boy was alive. But he was only there to restrain the Kyūbi if it were to be in danger of escaping.

 _New entities arriving_

Panther tensed, ready to leap out in defense of the genin if these new chakra signatures came at them with the intent to harm, ANBU Code be damned. They were the signatures from the boat- they had finally made an appearance. He watched silently from his perch directly above their yacht as they climbed onto the bridge and spread out along the end. Casting his senses further out, Panther tracked the team he had came with and judged them to be less than a five minutes away. Perfect.

A rough grunt of pain from Momochi brought Panther's attention back to the battling jounin. While he had eyes on the genin, Hatake had mangled both of the nuke-nin's arms, making him veritably useless in a fight against other shinobi.

 _Second threat diverted._

 _Last threat remaining._

 **vvv Katabami Gold Mine; Kawa no Kuni vvv**

 **vvv March 20; 8:48 am vvv**

 **vvv Nozomi vvv**

Shisui-senpai was _pissed_. So much so that I was a bit concerned for Kisame's well-being at the moment. The way Shisui kept glaring at the Kiri nuke-nin with his sharingan spinning ominously, it was obvious that he was one second away from eviscerating his partner.

The fact that Kisame-senpai looked entirely unrepentant probably wasn't helping the matters at all. I couldn't say I really blamed him either, our target had quite a few screws loose and he was a bit of an asshole to Kisame. You just don't _do_ that and expect to live.

The Uchiha closed his eyes and took a long breath steadying breath; but when he opened them again his eyes were still gleaming a dangerous red. His voice, however, was deceptively calm, "Tell me, Hoshigaki-san, did it not occur to you that we needed him _alive?_ " The last word was ground out with such exasperation and frustration that I wondered if I should be worried about my own well-being, just by being in the vicinity.

Despite his passive and aloof attitude, I know very well that Shisui was _Dangerous._ It might have been before Shisui took me in, but I still knew about what had transpired between Shisui and some former Akatsuki member named Orochimaru; how my senpai had turned the man's body to _ash_ for simply attacking him. The story was bandied about at least once anytime a new Akatsuki member was recruited, almost as if it were a warning to the new recruits of what would happen if they pissed the Uchiha off.

Those types of stories fairly common actually; all the senior Akatsuki members had at least one story about their exploits that was told to all new recruits and affiliates of the Akatsuki. It was part initiation, part warning of what we were getting into– not that it mattered at that point. There was no backing out of the Akatsuki.

Kisame shouldered the partially unbounded Samehada with a simple shrug, "It did. It also occurred to me that if I didn't take care of the nuisance myself, Kakuzu would and we'd have to go searching all over again." Respect for my blue skinned senpai rose to new heights. I had never seen anyone so nonchalant in the face of certain death! I wondered if he could teach me, but then I quickly dismissed the idea because there was no way in _hell_ I was ever going to put myself in that type of situation.

Shisui-senpai seethed for a bit longer before growling something under his breath and stalked off to look for the strange bundle our former target had been lugging around on his back until it had come unattached mid-fight.

The moment he was gone I whipped around to stare up at Kisame in a new light. He caught my look with a smirk, winking at me as if we were both conspiring to make Shisui-senpai's life a living hell. I responded with a look that told him to leave me out of his schemes. He might be able to survive a pissed off Uchiha, but I was dead meat if Shisui turned his ire on me.

Kisame just laughed at my expression and sat down to begin cleaning Samehada, as if nothing had happened.

 **vvv Shisui vvv**

Shisui gazed down at his quarry with mixed feelings. When he had gone in search for the bundle Raiga had carried on his back, he had been expecting anything from scrolls of varying subjects to memorabilia of his 'dead' family members– with Raiga's special flavor of insanity Shisui wouldn't put anything past the man.

However the one thing he didn't expect was a child. Much less a child possessing the extremely rare Ketsuryūgan kekkei genkai. The young boy stared up at him passively, his eyes glowing red in a likeness of the sharingan _sans_ the three encircling tomoe.

After a moment of silence between the two dōjutsu users the boy finally spoke, "Are you going to kill me?" His voice was light and feminine. Childlike. Shisui doubted the boy was older than ten.

Shisui nodded silently.

The boy smiled, "Then I don't mind that it is by your hand. I saw you get mad when your partner killed Raiga-san." Shisui didn't have the heart to tell the boy _why_ he had lost his temper. Instead he silently unsheathed his tantō. The boy continued speaking, "I could also tell that you could see through my genjutsu, no one has ever done that before." There was a hidden question in his statement.

"My eyes allow me to see through all genjutsu." Shisui replied quietly. He knew he didn't have to answer the kid, all he had to do was thrust his tantō into the boy's skull and be done with it. But his annoying conscious was causing him to hesitate.

"Really? Are you like me then?"

"No. I am an Uchiha, my kekkei genkai is the sharingan."

"Oh… I don't know what I am."

Shisui watched the boy's face as he struggled to smother his disappointment. Inwardly Shisui pitied the boy. He was so young, and because he had been allied with Raiga– because Raiga had the misfortune of catching the eye of the Akatsuki– they would both be dead by the end of the day. Kisame already made the blundering _stupid_ mistake of killing Raiga; and Shisui would be damned if he let the Akatsuki get their hands on a priceless kekkei genkai like the Ketsuryūgan.

"The Chinoike clan had a kekkei genkai like yours called the Ketsuryūgan," Shisui found himself explaining. The boy looked up at him with wide eyes, obviously surprised that Shisui would be willing to share the information. Shisui didn't blame him, he was a little surprised at himself too, "it allowed the clan to cast genjutsu on par with my clan's Sharingan as well as manipulating any liquid with a high concentration of iron."

The boy frowned. "I can't do that. I can only see through things and create genjutsu." He almost sounded petulant.

Shisui thought for a moment before finally saying, "The Chinoike clan was wiped out by my ancestors long ago. It is possible your eyes are a mutation of their kekkei genkai."

There was another long moment of silence before the boy whispered to himself, "Chinoike Ranmaru…" He murmured his name a few more times before grinning up at Shisui. For a moment Shisui _ached_ ; no child should be that happy to have a surname, "Thank you, Uchiha-san, for giving me a family name. And don't worry, I don't hold my death against you. I know you are just doing your job." With that the boy, Ranmaru, closed his eyes and waited for death. It nearly broke Shisui's heart.

Nearly…

Shisui's sharingan activated to cast a genjutsu on the young boy, dulling the thalamus so that his mind could no longer recognize pain. Ranmaru relaxed as all sensations of pain, no matter how small, left his body and his mouth turned upwards in a small smile. Shisui laid his hand against the boy's forehead, to keep the boy still as well as to allow him some small comfort.

With only a brief pause to harden his heart, Shisui plunged the blade of his tantō into Ranmaru's right eye and brain, killing the boy instantly. Shisui yanked the gore covered knife out of the boy's eye socket and repeated the action on the other eye, ruining the dōjutsu for anyone who coveted it.

Wasting no time to mourn a stranger, Shisui zipped the bag over the body and set it on fire. He didn't bother to watch the impromptu funeral pyre; but instead returned to Kisame and Nozomi, where the two of them were busy themselves with cleaning up Raiga's death. Shisui watched Nozomi as he walked up to them, feeling absolutely nothing at the effectiveness of his student decapitating Raiga's head and looting the corpse for any valuables. He knew he should feel _something;_ some form of disgust, shame or unease that a seventeen year old technical civilian could do such a thing without blinking.

Kisame didn't bother to look up from his careful inspection of the twin Kiba swords when Shisui stopped beside him. While all three of them were masters of the blade, it was Kisame who was an expert; especially when it came to the weapons of the Seven Swordsmen. Kisame finally sealed the swords away in a scroll and stood. While he would never give up Samehada he wasn't about to let a pair of extremely valuable swords enter the black market; and he would _definitely_ never let Kirigakure get their hands back on them.

By that time, Nozomi had finished her own task and was walking back up the short cliff towards her senpai. Her face was a study of dissatisfaction and mild disgust whenever the head she held by the hair bounced against her thigh like some macabre pouch. She handed the head to Kisame, who went about sealing it up to collect the bounty on later, and a small bag of money she found on Raiga to Shisui. "That's it. Everything else is useless." She reported.

Kisame raised his eyebrows, "I seem to remember Raiga having a taste for the finer things. Funny he should be found out in this rundown gold mine." At the mention of gold, Nozomi's eyes snapped around to stare at the mountain that housed the mine her minty eyes gleaming with hunger and greed.

"No, Nozomi." Shisui said in a tone reminiscent of a parent denying their child a second treat.

The girl jerked at the mention of her name and pouted, but didn't bother trying to protest her unvoiced begging. Kisame grinned viciously, taking a moment to enjoy Nozomi's childish sulking, as he climbed to his feet.

When he questioned Shisui about the bundle, the Uchiha shook his head, "Nothing of worth." Not anymore at least. By now it and the boy inside should be nothing but ashes. Kisame mumbled incoherently as he hoisted Samehada onto his back.

"So where to next? I'm starting to like this reunion of the Swordsmen thing." He commented with another deadly looking smile.

Both Kisame and Nozomi tensed when Shisui turned his sudden blood red gaze on Kisame, he never used his sharingan unless he was in a battle that required it, or as an intimidation tactic on potential Akatsuki members. For him to activate it now meant he was still very furious with the turn of events.

"Because of your actions here, we are forced to go into the heart of Mizu no Kuni for our next target." Shisui said, distaste coloring his voice. Kisame grimaced, finally looking as if he severely regretted killing Raiga. Both nuke-nin had no desire to travel to Kiri, each with their own unique reasons but now they had no choice.

Nozomi looked eager at least, Shisui thought sardonically when he saw his student attempt to smother her enthusiasm as she fell in step with him.

 **vvv Location Classified vvv**

 **vvv Time and Date Withheld vvv**

 **vvv Operative Panther vvv**

It was official. The crowd of thugs didn't have two brain cells between the lot of them to rub together. One _did not_ taunt shinobi in any situation and expect to come out alive, let alone one as unstable and angry as Momochi. It wasn't all that surprising to Panther, civilians tended to think that numbers won battles. Nor did Momochi's sudden change of heart surprise him either. Nuke-nin only thought of money, and when the source of money attempted to betray or cheat their employee, it was a guarantee that the former client would be dead before the day ended.

 _One minute…_

Gato walked forward to kick the corpse of the deceased hostile. The jinchūriki overreacted and started to attempt an assault. Hatake stopped him.

 _Thirty seconds…_

The jinchūriki began shouting at Momochi, lavishing on a speech about the deceased– _Haku_ – being more than just a tool to Momochi. Panther tensed, hand going to the hilt of his chokutō. He was prepared to take out the nuke-nin if he so much as twitched wrong.

 _Five…_

 _Four…_

 _Three…_

 _Two…_

 _One._

In tandem with the arriving team, Panther leaped away from his shadowy perch and landed in the space between the corpse of the Haku boy and the three battle worn shinobi. He faced the more deadly threat while the back up team stood at his back, weapons out and ready for a fight.

"Combat and Reconnaissance Team 23, responding to request for back up by Genin Team 7, under Hatake Kakashi- reporting." The team leader, Shiranui Genma, rattled off over his shoulder.

Panther watched closely as Hatake slowly got to his feet, using the jinchūriki as support. It looked as if Kak- _Hatake_ was close to chakra exhaustion again. If he weren't wearing his ANBU mask, Panther would have sighed in exasperation at his former taichō.

Hand still on the blonde boy's head, to keep him in place no doubt, Hatake responded, "Hatake Kakashi of Genin Team 7- confirming. Momochi Zabuza is no longer a threat. Remaining targets are to be neutralized. Excessive force not authorized."

At his orders the team of chūnin darted forwards into the crowd of thugs, making quick work of the civilians. Though no blood was shed, the thugs were still frightened enough to flee- but not for long. The team would round up any of those that escaped once the ones they already caught were secured.

The Kyūbi container was looking at the four figures in Konoha uniform, to Panther's distinct ANBU armor, and then to his sensei in confusion, "Ne, Kakashi-sensei? What's going on, who're these guys?"

Hatake had been drilling holes into Panther's profile, but turned to give his student an eye-smile. "I called for backup when we encountered the Demon brothers. They finally arrived." With that he returned to staring very intently at the ANBU Operative.

Panther simply ignored the jounin and stared daggers at the injured Momochi, who in turn eyed him warily. While Konoha ANBU weren't well known outside Hi no Kuni, other than their basic job description, being a nuke-nin meant Zabuza had a more intimate knowledge of the mysterious ANBU Corps. He knew full and well that Hatake's orders did not extend to Panther, who was the current highest ranking individual on the bridge. What Momochi didn't know, however, was Panther would listen to Hatake regardless, out of respect if nothing else.

Unless Momochi made a move against Konoha's jinchūriki. Then all bets were off.

 **vvv Nami no Kuni vvv**

 **vvv March 20; 8:34 am vvv**

 **vvv Omnipresent vvv**

It was a very short lived battle. Civilian thugs and the few genin nuke-nin were no match against three chūnin and a tokubetsu jounin. Even those not necessarily trained for combat like Tsuzumi, the team's medic and sensor, had no problem in taking down several targets. There wasn't a kunai that had been drawn among the team– they simply resorted to hard sharp jabs at the neck, temple, or other various pressure points to take their enemies down. It was a bit anti-climatic, but Iwashi supposed that if they had been a little faster they might have been able to intercept the real battle between Genin Team 7 and Momochi.

Still, it looked like Hatake-san did a number on the well-known nuke-nin. Iwashi had mildly wondered what the hell the guy did to incur the wrath of Sharingan no Kakashi.

"Hey Tsuzumi, ya missed one!" Iwashi joked as he tightened a length of ninja wire around the last thug's wrists, purposefully cutting off circulation to numb the hands and prevent him from being able to use them.

Iwashi's teammate began to make a retort but was cut off by Genma's sharp gaze. The medic began to turn away, properly reprimanded, but Genma spoke, "Tsuzumi. The Uchiha boy is injured, deal with him. We can handle the rest."

Tsuzumi gave his team leader a jaunty little salute and sauntered down the bridge. He gave a respectful nod to the ANBU operative and Hatake as he passed, but intentionally refused to look at either Momochi or the demon brat.

When he finally reached his patient, the little pink haired girl looked up with tear-stained eyes and he gave her a kind smile, "Hello, I'm Sarugaku Tsuzumi and I'm a medic. May I inspect your teammate?"

Sakura blinked up at the brown haired chūnin in a daze. Her face was flushed and hot from crying, and her nose was stuffy. She couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed. She must have looked like a fright and what would he think of her, breaking the twenty-fifth shinobi rule like she was?

But he didn't look disappointed with her at all, not the way he kept smiling at her so nicely. He wasn't all that bad looking, nothing like Sasuke-kun or even his older brother but– Oh, Sakura was suddenly very glad that her face was red from crying, because she was sure she was blushing!

Sniffling, the girl rubbed her hand under her running nose and gave Tsuzumi a hesitant nod as she backed away from the Uchiha boy. Tsuzumi's smile widened slightly and he leaned over the boy to check his pulse and chakra state. Both were very weak but still noticeable to a trained medic. To anyone less trained, it would be an assumed death. Judging by the senbon needles in the boy's neck it was quite obvious what had put him in a false-death state.

Tsuzumi looked up at the still sniffling girl. "Kunoichi-chan, I–"

"Sakura…" The girl, Sakura, whimpered.

Tsuzumi acknowledged the name with another small smile, "Sakura-chan, your teammate it still alive, but I need–"

The girl interrupted him again, this time with a disbelieving gasp, "R-really? Sasuke-kun is still a-alive?" She looked so pleased with the news that Tsuzumi found it hard to be annoyed with her continual interruptions.

"Yes, but I need your help. You see these five senbon needles?" Tsuzumi pointed to the narrow metal barbs buried in the kid's neck. Sakura nodded, green eyes narrowing with distaste, as if the mere fact that they were touching her teammates neck made the needles repulsive. "To revive your teammate they need to come out and–" Tsuzumi cut himself off and snapped a hand out to stop her wrist when she moved to pull out the needles.

"One moment, Sakura-chan, let me finish explaining first." Tsuzumi gently scolded. The girl's paling cheeks returned to a bright red, but she folded her hands in a lap and straightened, looking very determined.

Tsuzumi waited a moment longer to see if she would attempt to interrupt again, then continued, "As I was saying, these senbon needles are preventing your teammate from regaining conscious. These two here," He reached over the boy to point to the two pairs that was scissoring each main arteries on either side of the Uchiha's neck, "they're pinching the Carotid Artery and cutting off circulation to his brain while this one," Now Tsuzumi pointed to the last needle lodged in the tsuyugiri pressure point just below the ear, "is the one that rendered him unconscious in the first place. When I say so I want you to pull this one out, okay Sakura-chan?"

Sakura was staring at Sarugaku-san in awe. It was nothing short of amazing how he was able to determine the cause of Sasuke-kun's collapse (he wasn't dead! Sasuke wasn't dead! __ _ **Of course Sasuke-kun isn't dead! Nothing can take him down,**_ __ _ **Shānnarō!**_ ) by just scanning his body. To Sakura, all the needles buried in Sasuke-kun's skin were all responsible for his defeat. But according to Sarugaku-san, those five nasty needles in Sasuke-kun's neck were the real culprits, all the others just caused unnecessary pain.

She watched him intently as he talked to her throughout his minor operation to carefully extract the pairs crossed senbon that was cutting off Sasuke-kun's blood circulation. Sarugaku-san told her every little thing he was doing to reassure her that Sasuke-kun was in no danger. She couldn't believe how much knowledge and precision went into something so minuscule as pulling a few senbon out of a neck, but one tiny nick in the artery could potentially cause Sasuke-kun to bleed out. However, Sarugaku-san was quick to reassure Sakura that in the unlikely even of that happening, a quick appliance of medical chakra would fix the problem before Sasuke-kun could lose so much as a milliliter of blood.

Even Tazuna-san, who until that moment had kept quiet the moment the chūnin knelt down, expressed his astonishment over Sarugaku-san's knowledge.

Tsuzumi offered the civilian a small polite smile as he dropped the last senbon to the ground and sealed the open wound, "Field medics have a wide range of skills to compensate for the wide range of injuries their teammates could gain." He turned back to the little kunoichi, "Ready, Sakura-chan?"

The girl nodded and reached out to gingerly wrap her fingers around the slim metal stick, only slightly nervous. At Tsuzumi's nod, she yanked the senbon out and tensed. Nothing happened. Tsuzumi chuckled a little, "I'll need to kick start his chakra in order to wake him up. But let's not do that til we're finish with his other injuries, ne?"

It took roughly fifteen minutes for the rest of the senbon to be withdrawn and the wounds, including the scratches left behind from senbon that missed their target, healed. By that point the clean up had finished and the teams had wandered over to where Tsuzumi was. He tensed slightly when the demon brat knelt beside him, asking a million questions a minute.

Sakura noticed the immediate change in Sarugaku-san's attitude the moment Naruto came over. Going from a polite and gentle medic to someone who answered Naruto's many questions in a cold and distant voice. Sakura had almost forgotten that most of the adults didn't like Naruto. She was too used to the way Iruka-sensei, Kakashi-sensei, and even Itachi-san treated Naruto with varying levels of fondness and sometimes exasperation.

Sakura couldn't say she liked the terse way Sarugaku-san treated Naruto, not after all the inspiring speeches and raw determination Naruto displayed while in Nami no Kuni. He… he didn't deserve that.

Further away from where the shinobi were gathering, a pair of corvids sat on their claimed scaffolding. They were the same ones who had been keeping an eye on the unfolding events, all week they had been flying from Gato's fortress to where the Konoha nin had taken refuge, gathering enough evidence to take back to their individual masters.

The ruffled feathers on the crow smoothed back down the moment the nest-mate of his master sat up. He looked healthy enough, the crow surmised, that his master wouldn't go into a whirlwind of worry when he learned about his nest-mate's injury. The crow cocked his head and clicked at his companion, as if it were sharing a laugh.

The raven in turn bonked his younger cousin on the head hard with his scuffed beak. He was an old bird, one that should be respected by his many long years of service, not mocked by what was essentially a hatchling! The young crow cawed indignantly, flapping his wings to regain balance with the old buzzard almost knocked him off their perch. How dare he! The crow might not be as old as the raven, but he was still an important member of his master's murder. He was chosen for this mission after all, out of all the other young crows– _he_ got picked! The crow would not stand for this slight against him!

The commotion of the battling birds was drawing the attention of the humans on the bridge. Most of them didn't care enough to concern why, but two individuals tensed when they spotted the raven heckling the smaller bird. They recognized the old bird, despite the long years of his absence.

Iwashi, in an uncharacteristic fit of anger and betrayal, flung a kunai at the pair of black birds.

The old raven, through experience of having many projectiles thrown at him throughout the years, flipped in midair and caught the handle of the kunai in one of his talons. He croaked in what appeared to be admonishment, clearly disapproving of the attack.

The crow, however, was barely able to avoid the airborne knife. Rattling off panicked caws he dived right into Sasuke's chest, huddling in his master's nest-mate's arms. At least he was safe there! Sasuke, very confused from having just woken up, expertly cradled the crow close, "G-Goma…?" He rasped, recognizing the crow as one of Itachi's summons.

"Sasuke." At his sensei's voice, the newly revived Uchiha looked up from the shivering crow. Kakashi-sensei wasn't looking at him however, none of the adults were, but at the raven still swooping through the air with its pilfered kunai.

"Sensei?"

Kakashi finally glanced at his dark haired student, "Do you recognize that bird?" He questioned, jerked his chin in gesture to the flying raven. Sasuke inspected the bird in question, eyes narrow in concentration. The raven was a summon, easily distinguished by it's larger body mass than a normal raven, and by the silver chain with three small open ovals– its summoner's personal mark– that was barely visible among its shaggy neck feathers.

Sasuke shook his head slowly, unable to place the raven anywhere. He felt like he should be able to recognize it, if only because the ravens were also part of the _corvidae_ contract that his older brother had signed.

The raven jeered again and circled the group once more before flying west, back to the mainland, kunai still clutched in his talons.

 **vvv Hi no Kuni vvv**

 **vvv March 23; 3:24 am vvv**

 **vvv Shisui vvv**

It was during Shisui's portion of the night-watch that his summon, Fūjin, finally returned from his long reconnaissance mission in Nami Country. He dropped something in Shisui lap before huddling down on his master's thigh for some well deserved sleep. Shisui stroked the back of his oldest summon as he picked up the present his raven had presented him. It was a kunai. The Uchiha snorted under his breath, one of the first skills he trained all his battle ravens to do was to grab weapons out of midair. They were quite famous for it actually.

But that wasn't what amused Shisui.

Still stroking Fūjin's back, Shisui reached out with his other hand to finger the tiny sardines etched along the metal loop of the kunai's hilt. He leaned his head back against the tree he was nestled under, "So you ran into the old team, huh? Must have been quite the reunion…" He murmured to the drowsy raven, who chattered quietly as if in agreement.

 **^o^**

 **SOME NOTES**

 **Ketsuryūgan:**

It's never said what Ranmaru's Kekkei Genkai was. When I researched it, it said that his bore a striking resemblance to the Ketsuryūgan, which was featured in Sasuke Shinden. This was before the anime filler arch came out so I know they aren't exactly the same now. Let's just say that his Kekkei Genkai was what Shisui said: a mutation of the original dōjutsu.

 **The Raven and Crow:**

 _Fūjin:_ Deity of the wind, and one of the eldest Shinto gods, therefore why not name the oldest raven summon after him?

 _Goma:_ A type of dango, specifically individual dango rolled in sesame seeds. Like Shisui, Itachi names his crows in a certain pattern. Unlike Shisui, Itachi names his crows after desserts (mostly dango).

 **Iwashi's Kunai:**

'Iwashi' means 'sardine' in Japanese, hence why he has custom-made kunai with sardines etched into the metal loop. I thought it was funny and an easy way for Shisui to identify the kunai without it being unrealistic.

 **Last chapter's challenge answer:**

Operative Panther used to be Operative 010992 while in Root because that is Tenzō's ninja registration number (yes- Op Panther is Tenzō, if that wasn't obvious already). Sadly no one guessed the real reason, though _animechick247_ came very close- so she'll be getting the prize; which is: an Omake of the story over any topic! **animechick247, I'll be PMing you later to discuss the details** **soon** **.**

 **Z** **abuza's Bounty:**

I was basing it off of the bounty Asuma had- which was pretty high itself (35 mil ryo)- and taking into consideration that the economy of Kiri is probably lower than whoever wanted Asuma's head, despite Zabuza being wanted for something much worse than just making the wrong kinds of enemies.

 **OTHER HOUSEKEEPING**

 **There was supposed to be a Itachi POV slice, but A) it didn't contribute to the storyline at the moment, B) I didn't want to keep you waiting longer (cuz it does need to be rewritten) and C) this chapter is already 13 pages long. We'll start off with Itachi in the next chapter.**

 **Speaking of next chapter: no clue when it's gonna be. I've got like a month and a half before I return to Colorado for my last year working at the summer camp, and all that time is gonna be spent working on Rule 3 in hopes I can get it's upcoming chapter out before I disappear for the summer. Just FYI.**

 _ **All characters are canon! Don't believe me? Look up**_ **Tatami Iwashi** ** _and_ Sarugaku Tsuzumi _then we'll talk (the unnamed teammate on Team Genma is canon too, I just didn't have room for him to be officially introduced yet and I don't wanna give spoilers)_**

 **Who was fooled by the red herring of Zabuza being the person the Akatsuki were gonna recruit? C'mon, be honest~!**

 **Ages as of the end of this chapter: Team 7 (12), Haku (15- dead), Nozomi (17), Itachi (18), Shisui (21), Iwashi (23), Panther (23), Tsuzumi (25), Zabuza (26), Kakashi (26), Genma (28) and Kisame (30)**

 **Tell me what'chya think!**


	8. AUTHOR'S NOTE

**NOT AN UPDATE** **!**

 ***sigh* I tried really hard not to do this cuz I know how annoying it is to get an update notice only to find out it's an Author's Note. Sadly I needed to get the word out so none of you weren't contemplating my murder when it took forever for me to update (more so than usual anyway).**

 _ ***insert shameless self advertising here* If you followed my fanfiction blog on Tumblr, you'd already know about this, just sayin'… *okay back to the important stuff***_

 **Well, as I'm sure you probably caught from the addition to the summary (if you even read it anymore) this story is now ON HOLD!**

 **I was never really satisfied with how Nintoku turned out, so I decided to rewrite it. ALL of it. And even add a few short chapters to the story (between the prologue and chapter 1) to get rid of the annoying time jump. Doing so will help with character development and pace the story out better. Speaking of pacing: some of the previously written chapter are taking heavy fire and being torn to shreds so it's not as action packed and… sudden.**

 **So yeah, I'm working as hard as I can to finish the rewrite as quickly as possible. Please be patient!**

 **As soon as I'm finished, I'll be deleting all current chapters and replacing them with the new ones. Readers WILL HAVE to reread the entire story because it'll be _75-80% completely new material!_**

 **Cheers!**

 **~Sukki**


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